I guess I'll give it a shot
by maseta
Summary: Self insert story. Inspired by Catch your breath by Lang Noi. Takezo Uchiha is not a normal kid. Knowing the future is all well and good, but sometimes it aint enough. Hopefully he'll be able to change some of it and make the shinobi world a hetter place. Or maybe not. Won't know till he he tries. I own nothing but my OC's (wish I did though) Cover art courtesy of Tyler Strahs
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One. "You can be a King or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper" -Robert Alton Harris

There are many questions about what happens when we die. Is there an afterlife? A heaven and hell? Maybe, I know reincarnation is definitely a thing, but we'll get to that in a moment. I don't really remember dying per se, more like quick flashes here and there of a firefight, (I was a soldier) running, ducking, shooting, screaming the unmistakable sound of ripping paper which signaled an RPG, an explosion, and then nothing. Straight black. I've worked out in the years since that I may have caught a piece of shrapnel from the RPG or some shithead got a lucky shot off while I was dazed, either way, I was dead. Now on to the reincarnation.

It was weird at first, like you're floating in pure darkness, and then a feeling of being pulled, pushed, and pain. I screamed but didn't really hear anything, and then I saw a light and the next thing I new, I could hear my screaming which didn't sound right but I still couldn't see very well. Turns out babies eyes aren't that great, not that I knew I was a baby at the time. I kept hearing the word Takezo and, I tried to move and talk but nothing seemed to work right. My first fear was that I'd been in a coma and everything had atrophied to the point where I couldn't use them. This belief however, went away very quickly as I soon figured out through the haze that was my vision that I was being picked up and carried very easily. Now, when I died I was around five foot eleven and about two-hundred and twenty pounds. So even if I'd lost the muscle and fat, I couldn't have been easy to lug around due to my length.

For better of for worse my eyes started to actually work after a couple of weeks (I think, couldn't really keep track of time) with a good degree of clarity to find that, I was a baby. On one hand, I had in fact died. So, that sucked. On the other hand, I had got a second chance so I did something right to someone and some higher power decided I wasn't done living yet, so, yay on that. Now I needed to figure out where and when I was. This, is where I freaked out and cried like, well, a baby. My parents had taken me out on a walk around the town where we were living. I studied the buildings and people as intensely as a baby with no motor function to speak of can, and I was quickly coming to the conclusion that I was somewhere both terrifying and awesome at the same time.

The thing is, my family, the old one that is, had a weird ability to memorize and recite movies and TV shows to the point where myself, my dad, and my grandfather could have full conversations in quotes. I was also a fan of anime and manga, Japanese cartoons and comics, one in particular was my favorite. Naruto. I had practically the whole universe memorized, and now as a baby I was looking at one of the most recognizable things in said universe. The Hokage monument. Hard to miss faces carved into the side of a mountain like Mount Rushmore. I freaked at this. Like I said, this was equal parts awesome and terrifying. It was awesome because, well superpowers. Super strength, speed, stamina, and wielding the power of elements to fight. All the things a kid could dream of. It was also terrifying because I knew what was coming, and it was not even remotely close to good.

After about a minute or two of crying and flailing about which my parents did their best to placate me I finally calmed down, I needed to focus, figure out what time period I was in. Maybe I'd missed the war. Looking up at the monument I saw three faces, so no. Ok so clearly before the ascension of Minato Namikaze otherwise known as the Fourth Hokage, so I had atleast a rough idea now, that was good. Next was to figure out what I was going to do. Clearly I was going to go and become a shinobi, no brainer there. I couldn't think of a way to gather more information about who was alive and who wasn't at the moment and presumably not in the near future. So for now I'd plan and I'd attempt to figure out how to access my chakra.

I knew that I'd likely been born inside the Hidden Leaf Village itself as it hadn't been that far of a walk before I saw the monument, which meant I had a good chance of being born to shinobi parents, which meant I'd have access to chakra, unless I ended up like Rock Lee and had malformed chakra coils. Didn't have to worry about that thankfully and actually, accessing my chakra was much easier than I thought it would be. Imagine a second set of vains running through your body, and it's like it's filled with hot chocolate or fresh coffee. It was awesome, and good progress that I could feel it so young and I tried to repeat it over and over again until I made it back home where I made my second discovery.

I was an Uchiha. The unmistakable Uchiha crest that was on the front door of our house was a dead giveaway. It Made sense the more I looked at my parents, my mothers soft more rounded features and long black hair with long bangs covering half of her face and rounded onxy eyes contrasted by my fathers sharper longer features with dark brown hair styled in something akin to a high and tight with far more almond shaped eyes. These were good things offset by the fact that unless I got real strong real fast I would likely be dead before I was into my mid twenties when Itachi would be ordered to wipe out the clan. If I planned right and was strong enough I might be able to prevent it and if not then at least be able to fight, possibly force him to retreat, or maybe even kill him. the latter was unlikely at best and impossible at worst, and I didn't really want to kill him either. I knew he didn't want to kill his clan but more or less had to in order to keep a civil war from occurring and to protect his little brother. Not to mention Obito was involved and that complicated matters even more.

But, I couldn't focus on that now, no for now I would have to wait and play the part of a child. I'll admit I have no Idea how any of us make it through childhood in the first place, especially the infant and toddlers ages, not being able to move or communicate was maddening and I put all my effort into those at first. I picked it all up rather quickly thankfully, possibly due to my brains old memories and that Uchihas are for the most part, gifted naturals at pretty much everything. I was making normal baby sounds by five months, actual words by a year, short sentences by a year and a half, and full on conversations by two.

I'd picked up walking around the time I was a year and a half old after much trial and error, and pain, and was actually, mostly stable by two. My mother, Himari, was so delighted when I started talking, I don't think I'd ever seen someone that excited before. As soon as I'd said 'mama' she squealed and lifted me up cheering, saying she was so proud of her little Takezo and swinging me around in her arms, which did not sit well with my toddler stomach and resulted in me vomiting all over her which made her laugh even more, which I found weird. My father, Kaito, on the other hand had much the same reaction when I happened to walk into the living room and grab him for something. It hadn't occurred to me that neither of them had seen me walk and that, as a toddler this was a big thing.

While all this was happening I'd been working on chakra manipulation, I'd found I had a nack for sensing as I could always track my parents if they were in the house which, since they were shinobi was much more difficult than most people realize. When they walk, they dont make a sound, common for shinobi but also annoying for a child who doesn't like surprises. I kept working on my chakra to help build my reserves but also control, on top of that I also took up reading, on all subjects I could, History, Culture, literature, most importantly, chakra theory in reference to application of ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, Fuinjutsu, ect. My introvert tendencies took over really hard at this point so I didn't really play with other kids which was slightly concerning to my parents but they didn't bother me about it too much.

Finally, when I was about four and a half I decided to finally ask my parents about enrolling me into the Academy for Ninja. I remember finding my dad in the evening while mom had already gone to bed, he'd just returned from a mission sitting at the dining room table, he looked up at me and gave a tired smile.

"Takezo, what brings you down here?" I was admittedly nervous.

I wanted to be a shinobi but at the same time, a parents worst nightmare was for their child to die and there was a good chance of that happening in this line of work. I would occasionally wonder what my old family was doing and how they were handling everything. Probably not well, a divorce had already happened and relationships were strained at best for most of my immediate family. I shook the thought, took a deep breath, and looked at him.

"Dad" Ok here goes.

"I, I want to be a shinobi." I let out a little quietly.

He didn't say anything for what seemed like an eternity, I couldn't bear the silence and the ground became really interesting as I waited for his response. He hummed thoughtfully, and closed his eyes in thought. I snuck a quick peak at hin trying to get a read on him. He opened his eyes and seemed to search every inch of my being, I straightened up trying to look him in the eyes.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, face set in stone.

In all honesty I didn't really have to be nervous, wanting to be a shinobi was common in the clan, and if I didn't decide what I wanted to do soon the clan would pressure the family to make me a shinobi. But I was still a kid so maybe my parents would say no. I nodded my head. He sighed and then smiled slightly.

"Alright then. Tomorrow morning I'll take you down to the lake and I'll give you a test. If you pass then I'll fill out the paperwork for the academy." He finished with a thoughtful look adorning his face. I swallowed.

"And if I fail?" He just waved his hand.

"Then there's always next year. Now go get some sleep, you're gonna have to get up early."

He then shewed me off to bed and went back to whatever he was doing before. I did my best to force myself to sleep, but much like my old self, sleep was something that didn't really come that easy. I had a faint idea of what dads test was going to be as I layed there trying to think of a way to sleep I decided to focus on my chakra. As soon as I'd discovered my chakra when I was younger I'd been been absolutely fascinated by it, I layed on my bed with my eyes closed feeling my chakra course through my body, the soothing almost safe feeling of it warming me and eventually, without me even noticing. Pulling me into sleep, already one point for the shinobi world.

Dad woke me up probably around four in the morning, the sun hadn't come up yet and didn't look like it would for awhile. Mom was up as well and had already made breakfast, she smiled, said good morning and ruffled my slightly unruly hair before disappearing into the house somewhere else. While odd I figured it had to do with me wanting to become a shinobi and her disagreeing. I looked to dad who seemed to have a knowing smile and almost a gleam in his eyes and looked just all around happy, weird. After breakfast, dad and I left and walked to the lake situated in the forest on the outskirts of the Uchiha compound. Once we got there dads face seemed to take on a more teacher like appearance.

"If you want to become a shinobi worthy of the Uchiha name then you need to be able to meet certain standards." He gained a slight smirk before blurring into a number of hand seals.

'Fire Style: Great Firball Jutsu!' He said before expelling, well, a great fireball over the lake. It was about the size of a sedan and to my eyes, absolutely awesome!

He turned to face me completely stone faced.

"That is your end goal. If you can perform that Jutsu then I'll sign off." I studied him, that was just to easy, and I voiced said opinion.

"Ok, but you said standards, so what are the rest?" The corners of his lips turned upwards in a slight smirk.

"Not bad, you were paying attention. I was half expecting you to rush right into trying it." He said with slight praise before reaching into his kunai holster and throwing one into a branch of a nearby tree about fifteen feet off the ground.

"Your second task is to retrieve that kunai. I'm not expecting you to figure out tree walking yet but, all shinobi can enhance their physical skills and attributes with chakra so reaching that even at your age is doable." He then directed my attention to some logs arranged in a semi circle and brought me to about the middle point in between the last two logs on each side which if I were staring straight ahead were just on the outside of my peripheral vision.

"The final task is to be able to bullseye each one of these targets while only keeping your head and body straight. Sometimes you may find yourself chasing an enemy who may have friends around you and you need to keep your eyes on him but be able to engage those around you."

I both mentally high fived and slapped myself, on one hand I'd been slightly right on guessing the test at least on the fireball Jutsu part. I'd remembered Itachi and Sasuke having to perform said jutsu for their dad, although maybe that wasn't a test so much as a right of passage thing but it would make for a good test so at least to me the logic made sense. I slapped myself for not running and playing more though. For someone my age I'd say I had much better chakra control than most but was lacking physically, or at least as much as an almost five year old could have.

"The deadline for academy applications is in three weeks. So I'd recommend you put in some serious work if you want to make it." Dad said while walking back towards the lake.

We then spent the rest of the morning going over things that would help point me in the right direction. First how to properly hold and throw kunai and shuriken. Second how access, move and apply chakra for physical augmentation along with exercises to help strengthen my body itself. Lastly, hand seals, how to mold and change the nature of chakra, exercises to increase flexibility, dexterity, and mobility of my hands like cats cradle, finger and thumb touches ect, and finally the hand seals necessary for the great fireball jutsu. By this time the sun was coming up, dad said that he was going to run some errands for mom and would be back later, a quick check for his chakrs showed that he was, in fact not running errands for mom but instead hanging out in the woods far enough that he was out of eyesight and I suspect he didn't know I could or didn't think I would check for him.

Either way I settled in for a long three weeks. After the first day where I mostly flailed around the field trying and failing to jump up a tree, looking like a moron forming hand seals and getting nothing but sprained fingers, throwing kunai at targets, missing by miles running to pick them up and the exercises thrown in between them dad finally came out of hiding and walked me home where I took a shower, ate dinner and went to sleep. The next day however I woke up early by myself this time, made breakfast and left for the lake by myself, This time I set a schedule. Three hours spent focusing exclusively on one task, and then another three on a different one ect. Sometimes dad wouldn't hide and would actually watch like a normal person, and more often than not mom would stop by and drop off lunch and even watch and offer advice. That's where I found out my mom was actually a shinobi at one time as well and a pretty good teacher.

Within the first week I'd managed to be able to jump up and get the kunai down from the tree, cool, so one task down and two more to go. The kunai targets were the next task I completed, I figured out that using my sensory skills I could feel the disturbance they caused in the air around it. Admittedly it was like picking a needle out of static made of more needles at first but eventually I figured it out. I also realized that I probably had a far more developed sensing ability than I initially thought but I'd investigate that later. With two of the three task down and a week and a half left to go before the deadline I dedicated twelve out of the eighteen hours of training I did to getting the jutsu down. I was beginning to run myself ragged, some would look at it as extreme dedication to training while most would see it as almost idiotic levels of self punishment, but to me it was something that had to be done.

I had to make it into the academy, had to train like this so that I could become stronger especially since the news broke that the second shinobi world war had ended. This in itself was both good and bad. Good because, the war was over even though it was mostly fought in another nation and casualties were relatively small compared to what they could have been and it now gave me a better frame of reference for what time I was in, but it was also bad because I had about a decade until the next war started up and if I wanted to change the normal history and prevent some serious damage and possibly my family and myself from being murdered then I needed to be as strong as possible. A few days before the deadline my dad stopped me from going out in the morning and told me that I was going to take the day off, when I say told I really mean ordered me to take the day off.

At this point mom and dad never really ordered me to do anything before so there was a bit of a shock since I'd came home, I'd have probably laughed had it been my mom. So since I didn't go out to train I stayed home and did something I hadn't done in a long time. I slept, and slept and stayed asleep. I woke up the next day around noon to the sound of shouting and giggling, I managed to rouse myself from the heaven that was my bed and walked into the spare room to find my mother sitting on a chair knitting a small blanket with a large smile gracing her face and looking like she was about to burst at the seams with excitement while my dad with his bandaged fingers looked the same while he was busy fushing with... a crib?

What was goi- wait, oh, small blanket, crib, parents practically glowing. Only one answer.

"So when's the baby due?" I said trying to sound as uninterested as possible while trying to hide my excitement, and failing.

Both mom and dad looked at me with stunned faces, my guess is trying to figure out how I knew since we hadn't exactly covered the birds and bees yet. Sometimes having all my old memories were good for surprises. Both started laughing until my mom regained some semblance of composure.

"Well, I was gonna tell you before but your father told me that you were going to start training so I decided I'd wait until after you'd be accepted into the academy." She said in her usual soft voice. Dad meanwhile just shrugged

"We still don't know wether it's a boy or girl and your mom wants to be surprised but it'll be a while until the baby comes so dont worry about that. Besides, don't you have training to be doing young man?" He finished with a slight shit-eating grin.

My eyes widened as I realized that I'd waisted the first half of the day sleeping, I managed to get washed, dressed, and grabbed a small bento (boxed lunch) that was waiting by the door as I rushed out and to the lake. The Lake was about a mile away from the house and I could now make it in about six minutes if I was boosting myself which was far better than I could ever hope to do in my past life. After setting my stuff down and catching my breath I walked out to the pier, I watched my reflection in the lake for a moment.

I taken to doing this every morning once the sun came up, partly to remind myself that I was, infact, in a new body and had a new life, and partly because I would have to motivate myself, even if I pushed myself to the point of collapse and wanted to quit I knew I couldn't, I wouldn't say I have a hero complex, it goes alot deeper than that. I always hated seeing people upset, I hated when people cried, I hated bullies. If I could have it my way, we'd all live in a peaceful utopia, I think most people would like that, however I was and still am a realist, there was no way that could ever be achieved, humans just dont work like that. That's why I became a soldier in the first place, was to help people. Some would find that as a little odd, helping people by killing people, seems kinda counter intuitive but, it was the only way that I saw as having even a remote chance of working so I took it.

The difference this time is that I know what's coming and how massive the power gap is between the members of the Akatsuki and, say an average Jonin was... substantial to say the least, and that's not even taking guys like Madara into account. Taking all that in, and the fact that I couldn't even perform a simple fireball jutsu definitely made me feel like I was biting off more than I could chew. Objectively I knew that I was being too hard on myself, I always had been my worst critic, and I had made excellent progress all things considered, but like they say, old habits die hard.

That said, I did my usual warm up of ten minutes of cats cradle, practice all hand seals ten times and ten minutes of deep breathing. With one last deep breath I started, horse, serpant, ram, monkey, boar, horse, tiger. As I went through each seal I could feel my chakra moving and molding itself to the center of my being. I breathed in.

Now, I'm not really sure how to describe the feeling of transforming the nature of chakra but, I'll give it a shot. If you've ever flicked on a lighter or lit a match you hear a short 'swick' sound, this is essentially the sound of friction creating sparks to ignite the fuel source. Well, imagine feeling that sound. Then imagine the heat that comes with that feeling and needing to expel that heat. My recurring problem was mostly panicking and not controlling the expulsion of my chakra. When I'd panic I'd lose focus which caused the accumulated chakra to disperse back into my body. This time however, I was ready for that feeling and didn't lose my focus. I pushed the chakra up, out and into a brilliant ball of orange fire.

I am perfectly willing to admit that I did jump and yell in excitement, and then attempted to repeat my success. Deep breath, seven hand seals, move, and mold the chakra, feel the ignition.

'Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!'

Once again a large ball of fire made its way over the lake. I did it again! This was so cool! I was so excited that I didn't notice that, I was collapsing, it wasn't until I hit the water that I realized that I'd horribly overdone it and had actually hit chakra exhaustion. In a nutshell your body will usually shut down and put it self into a coma like self when you hit severe chakra exhaustion, anything less and it usually isn't much worse then say, getting the flu or something along those lines minus the fever. So when I hit the water and tried to start swimming my body just wouldn't respond. Found out I make a pretty anchor, I was sinking fast and was pretty sure that this was it, my lungs were screaming and my vision was beginning to fade when I felt a arm wrap around me and hall me up above the water line.

"Jeez you're heavy!"

I vaguely heard my rescuer say as he swam both of us to shore while I tried to suck in as much air as possible. As I got my breathing under control and the effects of my self induced oxygen deprivation subsided I looked over at my rescuer and was surprised to find a kid no older than me with short black spikey hair wearing a blue jumpsuit.

"Thanks for the save... uhh?" The kid gained a big goofy smile.

"No problem, Obito Uchiha's the name! What's yours?"

Oh crapbaskets.

That was pretty much the only thought that ran through my head, but I managed to fake a smile and force out a reply.

"Takezo, Takezo Uchiha." I said as casually as possible.

To me it was kinda like meeting kid hitler. He didn't know that he was going to be a bad guy, but I did, and I didn't quite know how to handle it.

"I saw you doing the fireball jutsu so I ran over to come meet you but then I saw you fall in. Which by the way, are you ok? Oh oh, can you teach me the fireball jutsu? Please please please?"

He rattled off those questions and more so fast I actually couldn't understand what he he was saying. He was also, much to my chagrin, inching closer and closer with each question and was quickly coming into my personal space. Usually I wouldn't mind this but, A, I'd just met him, and B, he was kind of annoying, I realized I wasn't dealing with the architect of a world war, I was dealing with a kid. A kid who at this point wanted nothing more than to be a shinobi and become the Hokage.

"Whoah, Whoah, Whoah. Slow down man. One question at a time, and uh... could you back up just a little please. You're a little to close." I said.

He looked down then back up to me realizing that he was practically face to face with me. He hopped back scratching the back of his head with a sheepish grin.

"Heh, Sorry. I get a little excited sometimes." He said while laughing nervously. He then refocused on me.

"So are you gonna go to the academy?" I nodded.

"Yep. My dad told me I had to be able to use the clans signature jutsu in order to go to the academy." Obito beamed at my answer.

"That's so cool! I'm going too! Hey! Do you wanna train together?" He said excitedly.

I thought it over, it might not be a bad idea. If we trained together and pushed each other to get stronger then he might not get crushed by a boulder and then not be captured by Madara and turned into an instrument of destruction. Or it might not make a difference at all other than helping me get stronger. Yeah, the answer was a no brainer.

"Yeah that'd be cool. Are your parents gonna be ok with you coming to train with me though?" His carefree face took a on a more sullen appearance for a moment before flipping back again.

"I live with my grandmother, but she's really cool and even used to be a kunoichi back before the village was founded! She said that if I wanted to be a shinobi and wanted to train I could, as long as I do my chores." Well, that answered a question the show didn't.

Not that they really needed to but, hey why not.

"Well if it isn't little Obito." we turned around to see my my dad strolling up to us.

Obito seemed to straighten at the sight of him and gain a rather large smile.

"Hey mister Kaito!" Dad chuckled at Obitos excitement.

"What are you boys up to? And why are you soaking wet?" I did my best to look like I didn't know what he was talking about. Obito on the other hand.

"Oh, well I was walking by when I saw a huge fireball!" He started flailing his arms excitedly in a attempt to show the size of said fire ball.

"I saw it again and ran over to ask whoever was doing it to show me how and that's when I saw Takezo falling into the lake, and then when he didn't come back up I jumped in and swam us back to shore!" Obito finished while also trying to breath.

He's certainly excitable.

Dad meanwhile just kinda raised an eyebrow at me.

"Takezo." He said causing me to sit up straight as a board.

"Congratulations. You've passed the test." I blinked.

"Wait, so you don't want to see me do it?" Dad shook his head.

"I doubt you can stand very well let alone preform any jutsu right now.

He wasnt wrong.

"That said why dont we go home and eat, it's about lunch time after all. I'll sign your papers and will drop them off at the academy afterwards." He reached down and picked me putting me on his shoulders.

He looked back at Obito while we started walking.

"You coming Obito?"

Obito seemed to quit literally shoot off the ground with a big toothy grin so wide that seemed to threaten to cut his face in two. We ended up hanging out the whole day, there was something relaxing about being around him, and his perpetual grin and cheery attitude was damn near infectious. We would eventually hand out every day leading up to school. we'd train in the morning, sometimes dad would supervise, sometimes mom, sometimes it would even be his grandmother who I learned later was named Okimi.

About a week before my class at the academy was supposed to start we had an orientation of sorts, so we could kinda learn our way around the school, for the non shinobi parents to learn what kind of classes their kids would be taking part in, and for me, finding out who of note (other than Obito, Rin Nohara, and Kakashi Hatake) would be taking part in my class. We were gathered in a auditorium of sorts when I found myself perched on my dads shoulders looking for anyone slightly familiar.

Judging by a boisterous personality and rather large eyebrows from both a father and son, I think I found a very young Might Guy and his dad whos name I believe was Might Duy, not sure how or where their names work or come from to be honest. There were a boy and a girl talking together in a corner, the boy was doing his best to seem impressive and macho and the girl, who had striking red eyes, seemed to be humoring him, my guess was that this was Asuma Sarutobi, and Kurenai Yuhi. A girl with purple hair wearing a tan jacket and shinobi mesh nawing on some dango had to be Anko Mitarashi. The whole thing lasted only a few hours, Dad was talking with one of the chunin teachers when somebody bumped into me causing me to stumble.

Said person turned around allowing me to get a good look at none other than Kakashi Hatake. Unmistakable white hair, mask covering the lower part of his face, paint peeling scowl showing unresolved trauma from watching your dad kill himself. Yep, definitely young Kakashi.

"Watch were your going."

I started trying to think of something witty to say since he was the one to bump into me but by the time the first words were formed he was already walking away. My first impression of possibly my favorite character from the entire series.

Dick.

I ended up finding Obito chatting away with a girl our age with purple tattoos on her face which identified her as Rin. Whereas Kakashi was the definition of Jackass. Rin was the definition of politeness. Like with Obito, Rin and I became friends inside of about twenty minutes. Dad took me, Obito, and Rin (After a little convincing and puppy eyes from Obito which surprised me at how well it worked) out to eat that night to celebrate our enrollment. It was a fun evening all told. Rin left after we exited the restaurant saying she needed to get back home, I later found out it was an orphanage. Obito, showing that he'd already fell for her like a meteor offered to walk her home almost as soon as the words finished leaving her mouth. She agreed and the two left me and my dad alone to make the journey back to the clan grounds.

It was a rather quiet journey until we made it to the outside of our house, dad stopped first, turning towards me with a soft look on his face.

"Takezo." He started.

"I want you to listen close to me." I gave a nod in acknowledgment.

"I know you've made some friends already, but don't stop." He seemed to be struggling to find away to say what he wanted to.

"Did I ever tell you the story of the Uchiha clans curse?"

Oh. I knew what he was talking about but I shook my head no since he never had told me anyway.

"Their is one thing about our clan that most don't know about. That our clan values love above all else. We tend to conceal it most of the time because of our clans reputation but it's true. To me it's the truly wonderful thing about our clan but, there is downside to that love. When the person we love and value so much is taken away it awakens something inside of us."

He closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened a moment later they were red, a ring with three tomo around the pupil giving off an eerie glow in the darkness of the night.

"The Sharigan is our clans greatest strength. But, it usually comes at the cost of replacing our love with hate when that which we love is taken from us. Most are able to control this hate enough not to lose themselves to it thanks to the people around us who love us and are able to help us through it. Others though. open themselves to it, drowning in it until it consumes them, turning then into monsters who seek to bring the world down with them."

He gave a long sigh, trying to think of what to say next.

"You're going to lose friends, that's just a part of being a shinobi. You will feel the pull of hatred eventually, but if you have good friends who will be there for you when you're at your lowest. Never forget that, it'll help you deal with the issues that you'll face, become a better person, and become a better shinobi."

He finished with the best fatherly smile he could give, his Sharingan fading away as he stood back up and walked inside. Admittedly it wasn't the best pep talk, but I got the message, and considering that the vast majority of Uchiha were arrogant pricks who would sooner drag themselves over broken glass than admit a failing of themselves and or especially the clan spoke volumes about the type of person my dad was. That night as I layed in bed I couldn't help but wonder, what if, in my crusade to change this world ended up with me being the bad guy? That could and likely would end horribly for everyone. I knew who was powerful, what role everyone played, weaknesses. as much as I could change it for the better, I could do the same but for the worst.

Yeah, needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night.

A/N What's up guys. So for anyone who follows my other story don't worry about me abandoning it. Things got in the way of me finishing chapter three and now I'm doing a full rewrite of it so it will be coming soon. This however is something I've actually wanted to do for a long time but didn't really know how to go about it until I found a little number called 'Catch your breath' By Lang Noi which is an awesome story (and better written if you ask me.) and it inspired me to actually give this a whirl. I'll see yall soon. Later!

PS. Dont know why it was so condensed at first. Thank you for bringing it to my attention I thought I had spaced it out before, hard to do well when I do all of the writing on my phone because I'm a scrub who can't work a comp well.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Well, I'm here to kick some ass." - Todd Blackburn (Black Hawk Down)

The academy was, hm, how to put it?

A bore isn't right. A total snore fest feels to much like a eighties teen valley girl. I guess, lacking is the closest term I can think of. Academically it was a cake walk, I'd always been a natural when it came to anything history related, I had a good handle on science and nothing here was more advanced than high school level stuff if I was back in my old world. I could bullshit my way through the more advanced math they sent my way after I demolished basic math problems.

( I was no math wiz but I could add, subtract, multiply, and divide with the best if I had a piece of paper.)

Coupled with my own foray into reading and writing prior to school had left me above most of my peers in that area.

The more shinobi centric subjects were only slightly more challenging.

Physical conditioning wasn't bad, the month prior of extreme training had brought me to the upper parts of my class in that regard, and I did have fun on the obstacle courses they had.

The ninjutsu portion was, underwhelming to say the least, there were three jutsu that they taught in the academy. None were offensive but not necessarily useless, in fact it was the exact opposite, only I wouldn't figure that out until much later.

First there was the 'Substitution Jutsu', good for getting out of sticky situations very quickly and good for catching your opponent of guard if timed right, I'd say I favored this one the most of the three.

Second was the 'Clone Jutsu', pretty much a secondary option for those that didn't have the absurd chakra levels to perform the shadow clone jutsu, it wasn't solid like a shadow clone and even if performed correctly in a pinch, tended to look kinda like a cardboard cutout.

Finally there was the 'Transformation Jutsu', useful for infiltration and surprising your opponents if they weren't careful, also as one unfortunate chunin instructors found out, great for pranks.

Come to think of it, I suppose there are actually fourth jutsu taught as well, which is know as the 'Body Flicker Technique'.

It isn't really a jutsu, more of just a name for high speed movement which is required for the substitution jutsu to actually work. Again, not a direct combat technique, at least according to the academy. I knew that there were certain shinobi that had used it to great effect in combat, the Hidden Cloud Raikages tended to make a habit of it, and then there was Shisui Uchiha,

(more on him later though)

and it was something I intended to learn how to do as well. Maybe never on their level but hey, it was good to have goals right?

Anyways the genjutsu class was all theory and between my earlier readings and asking my parents, which led me to finding out that my mother had been a genjutsu specialist prior to settling down, I breezed through it.

Taijutsu was definitely the most fun out of all of it in my humble opinion. I'd always liked sparring and learning how to fight, which in turn lead me to study different disciplines. I had a working knowledge of boxing, karate, judo, brazilian jujitsu, wing chun, and muay-tai. I was more a jack of all trades master of none mma type guy in all honesty and mixed with my size ended up making a pretty interesting fighter and as soon as I had some semblance of control over my body I'd started to practice again.

All that was mixed with the clans own taijutsu style which dad started teaching me after I'd been enrolled made me pretty much the best taijutsu fighter behind Kakashi (who I would consistently lose to much to my chagrin) and slightly in front of Gai, though I knew that wasn't going to last long with the way he trained and the kind of monster he would end up as. So I called it a solid win for now.

Strategy and tactics class was interesting simply because I enjoyed that kind of stuff and liked to try and think up new ways of doing things. Also I learned that I loved shogi, so that was cool, now if only I didn't get paired with a bored looking Nara I might have actually won a game.

Since I was essentially breezing through school, I spent as much time as possible tutoring Obito and training with him and my dad. Kakashi spent all of about six months in school when they graduated him ahead of everyone else, prodigy that he was it wasn't to surprising to anyone.

Problem for me was that the instructors were picking people who stood out as naturals to take the graduation exams. I'd managed to fail the first time alongside Kakashi which is what I wanted. To me, the more time I spent helping Obito, and even helping Rin every now and then the more it would help out it the long run. Maybe if I trained with them Obito would have been fast enough to save Kakashi and avoid a giant boulder that would crush him and ultimately lead to him being captured by Madara.

Maybe Rin would be able to keep from getting captured which would make the whole first part a moot point anyway. Sure, Kakashi wouldn't get a Sharingan but that didn't really make him that much less of a threat to any poor bastard unlucky enough to get in his way. Unfortunately, I managed to screw myself over anyways because I'd managed all three academy ninjutsu in the six months between Kakashi graduating at the end of the year, and was now at the top of the class for taijutsu since he'd left.

Right after I turned six they made me take the exam again. I passed. Which of course, was cause for celebration among my family and friends. I received a number of gifts from quite a few of my classmates who I was on friendly terms with, which was equally as surprising as it was nice since I didn't make an effort to really befriend any of them but I guess the old adage of

"Treat people as you wish to be treated." still held true.

Gai was, of course, the first to show up.

At four in the morning.

Holding a package with his feet while standing on his hands, because of course that's how he would deliver a gift.

"Good morning Takezo!"

He said with his usual excited flair and big eybro- I mean smile. I was still getting used to those things.

"Gai wh- What are you doing here? And why are you on your hands" I asked groggily while trying to whipe the sleep from my eyes.

"Your early graduation has proved to me your youth is greater than mine! So as punishment I have ran ten laps around the village on my hands in an effort to equal your commitment!"

I blinked. Then tried to stiffle a giggle.

Then I started laughing.

I did feel bad for laughing but it was hard not to when seeing him all worked up on his 'Youth'. To his credit he didn't seem to be offended and just kept his smile.

"Alright. So what's in the package?"

He brought his feet forward so I could take said package showing off a good bit of flexibility in the process. I opened the box to find a set of wrist and ankle weights. I smiled and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Weights? Are you saying I'm too slow Gai?" I said in a joking manner.

Gai just gave another big smile.

"Of course not my friend! But you can always get faster! Now I'm off to climb the Hokage monument with only my one arm to show the whole village the power of my youth!"

And with that, the strange green clad boy was gone. I certainly planned on using them, I remembered well the kind of impact they made for Rock Lee when he decided to take them off in his fight with Gaara.

Later on, at a far more reasonable time in the morning, Asuma and Kurenai showed up to give their gifts.

Asuma gave me a book on the Sarutobi clan history saying he remembered me asking him about the clan at some point, while I didn't recall the time in question I excepted it anyway.

Kurenai gave me a bottle of black shinobi nail polish which was nigh indestructible and great for preventing chipped and broken nails.

We hung out until Anko showed up with a box filled with dango, though it looked like some were missing, we demolished the box in about five minutes, and by we I mean myself and Anko of course. I liked sweets.

Aoba Yamashiro, showed up a little after that while I was dealing with a sugar crash. He was quiet, polite but with a wicked prankster side, which I may have helped him/covered for him from time to time. He brought me a actual up to date bingo book. Not sure where he got it, not sure I wanted to know but I thanked him all the same.

After a thorough examination of the book though, they all left and I put on my new weights and headed down to the lake to do some training, I would be meeting my team in a couple of days and I wanted to make a good impression. I was the only one to graduate this time around so the other two members of my team would be older and therefore, in my mind, they would see me as a liability.

I was well into a fight with an imaginary (severely depowered) Madara when I accidentally threw a spin kick that caught a unfortunate oblivious Obito square in his chest.

"Ow! What was that for!" He said on the ground rubbing his chest.

I just kinda blanked on how to answer.

"Uhhh, oops?"

I said raising my hands and shrugging my shoulders. He raised his head and gave me the flatest most unamused stare humanly possible.

"Oops." He deadpanned.

"You kick me in the chest, possibly breaking a rib."

Oh now he was just being dramatic.

"And all you have to say is oops."

I shrugged. We stared at each other for a moment, and then we broke out laughing. He recovered first and threw out an arm.

"Alright, help me up would ya?" I was still giggling when I pulled him up.

"Sorry about that." I said trying to fight off what was left of my laughter.

"It's alright. I probably shouldn't have walked up while you were kicking imaginary butt." He said while dusting himself off.

"Oh! I got you something for your promotion!"

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a dark tan jacket that had breast and shoulder pockets and the Uchiha clan crest sowed onto the sleeves. I inspected it for a moment, I could tell that ninja wire had been interwoven with the fabric. Gave good protection without the weight increase of actual mail armor. It was also, expensive.

After a good once over I looked over to him.

"Obito. I can't except this."

I said quietly trying and failing to keep the surprise out of my voice. He just gave a quick shrug and put his hands behind his head.

"Sure you can. Granny Okimi said that if I was gonna get you a gift then I should get you something you could actually use, and she gave me the money. It was the first thing I saw and it happened to be on sale, I figured that'd fit the type she was talking about."

Yeah, sounds about standard for Obito. Give him a task and tell him go and he'll just do the first thing that comes to mind. I shook my head giving another small laugh.

"So, you wanna spar?" I asked as I actually put the jacket on.

It was a little large but I still had some growing to do. Obito raised one of his eyebrows.

"You still wanna train with me?" He asked with mild surprise permeating his voice.

I cooked my head to the side in confusion.

"Yeah. Did you think just cause I graduated that I was gonna stop training with you?"

I said with no small amount of 'well duh idiot' in my voice. He gave a quick mumble about something while looking at the ground and then shot his head back up with a comically devilish grin and a glint in his eyes that read 'You're on',

"Ah crapbaskets." was all I got out before he tried to tackle me, and with that the game was on.

The spar itself was over fairly quickly, Obito ended up on his back while I was bent over with my hands on my knees. It wasn't that Obito was a bad fighter, when I graduated he was tied for third in taijutsu with Asuma, it was just that I had a more diverse style, more experience in actual fights, (if you count my old life) and if I hadn't been wearing the weights, more speed and agility. That said however, Obito definitely had a crafty streak and was great at improvising and adapting when things took a turn for the worst.

At the end of it I think I was just as sore as him.

I was definitely going to have to get used to these things fast. While we were laying there panting and trying to regain feeling in our numbed limbs I sensed a familiar chakra coming from the woodline.

"You can come out now dad." I called out.

I could almost hear his chuckle as he dropped from the trees and walked towards us.

"You two look like you had fun." He said with equally healthy doses of sarcasm and humor.

Obito, who was laying on his back threw up an arm.

"Yeah! I almost had him this time!" I laughed and shook my head.

"Sure. Right up until I had you in a choke turning blue." He leveled a stare that had absolutely no malice at me, to which I stuck my tounge out at him.

Dad just gave me a look that screamed, 'really' and I smiled at him like I had no idea what he was on about. He gave a quick eyeroll and the helped Obito to his feet and dusted him off.

"Takezo." He said in his usual matter-of-fact voice as he turned to look at me.

"Here's some ryo. Go get some sturdier clothes since you'll be doing missions soon." He eyed my new jacket for a moment, then smiled and nodded at Obito.

"A good start. Also, your mom asked me to get some groceries tonight for dinner, fish, dumplings and pickled something or other so figure out what you want and go from there. I've been summoned to the Hokage tower so I won't be able to get it." He finished with just hint of...

Anxiousness?

He ruffled Obitos and my hair before vanishing in a flurish of body flicker leaving Obito and I in the field. A quick check with my chakra sense left no doubt that he's long gone, we took a quick look at each other and with a wordless shrug we headed down to the Uchiha market district. Eventually I decided on a kind of uniform for being a genin, even though technically I can wear whatever whenever I feel like, it was hard to fathom the idea of serving in a military and not wearing a uniform.

With Obitos limited 'help' I eventually settled on a normal long sleeved ninja mesh undershirt with a kind of cyan blue long sleeved shirt and steel grey shinobi pants which are kina like sweat pants but far more durable and with pockets, and a place for a belt...

So not at all like sweat pants really I guess.

I bandaged down the bottom of the pants into my new black sandals which were awesome because they were kinda like boots and went up past my ankle for better support. To top the whole look off I tied my forehead protector around my neck. I went ahead and replaced the standard blue cloth with a black instead figuring the shirt added enough blue for three people, finally putting on my jacket Obito and I walked out of the tailors and over to pick up the groceries and head back to my house.

"I'm home! I got the groceries too, dad had to go to the Hokages Office." I shouted as Obito and I came through the door.

"Ok! Just put everything on the counter I have to change Shisui!" Mom replied sounding tired as mothers with newborns tend to.

Oh, and yeah, my little bundle of joy baby brother was none other than Shisui Uchiha. Imagine my panic attack at finding that one out.

On one hand I knew he was going to grow up and become a straight up certifiable badass, on the other hand though.

I was going to end up killing Danzo Shimura.

Because no one, and I mean no one was going to lay a finger on him. Not Danzo, not insane Obito, not even Madara fucking Uchiha would be able to get through me if he was after my baby brother.

That aside, he was a little shit at this age, he was only a couple months old at this point but had already figured out how to knock over every thing he could get his hand on, and found no small amount of pleasure in doing so, and if he got a hand or foot you were in serious danger of being gummed to death.

Obito and I set everything down and then rolled up our sleeves and started preparing what we could. I'd enjoyed cooking in my past life and I tried to help my mom with it in this life whenever I could, although I would never be anywhere close to her culinary magic. Obito surprisingly was actually a pretty decent cook himself, apparently his grandmother made it a point to teach him how to do it so that he could eat well when she eventually passed and he would be living in his own. The only downside to all this in my opinion was that there was a severe lack of good Italian food here, and I would be changing that as soon as I figured out how to make good pasta, the noodles around here just wouldn't work right.

But I digress.

Eventually mom came into the kitchen with Shisui and soon took over preparing food. We hung out, talked, cooked, and generally just enjoyed the day, Obito found out about the dreaded death by gumming when he tried playing with his hands. All in all it was a pretty good time up until dad came back later in the evening. He looked slightly bedraggled with a large tear in his flack jacket and possibly a blood stain on a cuff of his shirt.

"I'm going to be away for awhile on a mission."

His face was hollow and his voice was dangerously calm. The kind of calm I've only heard before once in both my lives.

The voice of someone going to war.

It couldn't be happening this early could it? This was going to be extremely problematic because my chance of seeing my teens had just shortened considerably and that meant I wasn't going to be able to change anything. Dads gaze meanwhile homed in on me.

"Your team meeting has been moved up to tomorrow, be up and at training field twenty-five tomorrow at seven thirty. Do you understand." I nodded yes.

Shisui seemed to pick up on the shift in the rooms mood and began to cry, mom picked him up to try and comfort him while dad went to pack. Obito came over to me and whispered.

"What do you thinks going on?"

I had my arms crossed in thought and completely forgot that he was even in the room and his whisper had me almost jump out of my skin. After calming down and registering his question I leaned back over

"There's only one reason he'd be leaving like this. He's going to one of our borders. I just dont know which one." I whispered back.

I knew but I couldn't just give it away, he hadn't told us so the war wasn't official yet but. He had seen battle recently, and that meant someone got close. Really close. He was back in the kitchen in no time, Shisui had stopped crying thankfully. He knelt down and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Take care of Shisui and your mother while I'm gone, and show your team how great our clan is, but know this. No matter what it is, whatever kind of mission you get assigned. Protect your team. Our village was founded by the Uchiha and Senju coming together as a team. A team is the most important thing for a shinobi, it's what makes us so strong. Never forget that. Understand?"

Again, I he looked at Obito.

"I expect you to keep up your training." To which Obito gave him a confident grin.

"Yes sir. You can count on me." Dad smiled at him.

"I bet." He stood up, gave mom a kiss and then left.

The mood was kind of heavy after that, Obito and I cleaned up the kitchen while mom layed Shisui down for sleep. Once that was done she brought me and Obito to our backyard porch. We sat down and mom lead us through what I assume was a shinto prayer. Religion hadn't been a big part of either of my lives, I'd nominally been a pagan follower of the norse pantheon but I wasn't devout, and while I felt bad about it, I'd never really paid attention to it this time around. My parents hadn't made it a point to make it a big part of life for me so it was a fairly new experience.

After the short prayer for protection for dad was over I did make a silent prayer to my gods for the same thing. I figured it couldn't hurt, there was clearly some kind of higher power out there since I'd been brought back to life here, might as well try anyway.

Afterwards Obito said his goodbyes and went home, mom gave me a hug and went to bed, I headed to my room and layed out the things I thought I was going to need. kunai, kunai thigh holster, at least a dozen shuriken, two spools of ninja wire, a few explosive tags dad had given me and shown me how to use, butt pouch for all that and my first aid stuff that reminded me of a dump pouch for expended magazines, clothes, forehead protector, wrist and ankle weights, and sandals. Yup that was everything, I couldn't wait to get my hands on some storage seals so I could carry more. That done, I laid down and tried not to think about the fact that war was on my doorstep, I focused in on my chakra and let it lull me to the realm of Nøtt.

The next morning I was up and running around, I put everything on, checked and then double checked it all, grabbed an apple and was out the door. I actually managed to make it to the training ground with around ten minutes to spare, all I could think was that I wouldn't be getting smoked on my first day, even if it wasn't likely. I walked around to get a feel for the place and it was actually fairly nice, a pond that was fed by a stream coming from somewhere, good amount of open ground about one hundred meters in length and about seventy meters wide that bore the scars of past training sessions with five training dummies in the center, and the whole thing was ringed by the gigantic sturdy Hashirama trees.

Right around the time I finished my solo tour of the place I noticed two chakra signatures off to my right hiding in the trees. Seriously what was with people and hiding in trees watching me? It was kinda creepy. I figured that these were probably my teammates and that they wanted to try and scare me, now what kind of newbie would I be if I didn't ruin there fun. I pivoted on my heels and pointed my self in there direction, I put my hands in my pockets and gave a long dramatic yawn to signify how utterly boring this was.

"You know it's not nice to spy on people. It gives you a bad impression I'm told."

I let out in the best lazy tone I could get out. There was a moment of stillness in the air before their chakra appeared behind me and I heard the swish of a body flicker. I turned casually around to them and gave a good once over.

One was another boy, I'd say about a year older than me. He had fairly long sandy blonde hair done up in a high set ponytail with bangs framing his black clothed forehead protector. He wore a long sleeved mesh undershirt like me with a navy blue t-shirt under a light brown jacket, He had what I'd call standard dark blue shinobi pants bandaged down into black sandals like mine. Finally he had the standard kunai holster on his right leg and surprisingly, ANBU gloves with the metal plate on the back of the hand. His face had a playfulness to it and a mischievous glint in his hazel eyes, I got the feeling I was going to get along well with him.

The other person was a girl his age who to my little six year self was absolutely stunning. She had kind emerald green eyes and red hair done in a kind of spikey bun held back with her blue forehead protector and bangs that went down to her shoulders swept mostly to right side of her face partially obscuring her right eye. She wore a dark green crop top with a yellow circle in the middle and same colored trim under a darker blue jacket with cut sleeves to make it short sleeved. She too wore blue shinobi pants that matched her jacket but with a grey skirt that went down to her knees and seemed, like her jacket, to be an aesthetic choice. Her pants weren't bandaged like mine or the other kids but were tucked into her sandal/boot things that went higher up the leg kinda like english riding boots. To finish her look she wore mesh fingerless gloves and and blueish green sash around her waist.

She radiated the same kindness that Rin had when we first met and had a gentle smile of her face. The boy gave me the same look over I gave them, narrowed his eyea for a moment, and then nodded to himself before sticking out his hand.

"I'm Kayame Arashi! Welcome to Team Four, I'm the senior genin here so if sensei's not around just come to me and I'll set ya straight!"

He exclaimed, shaking my hand with the most confident slash comical grin I'd yet seen, and my first friend was Obito so that was saying something.

"Ahem."

I heard come from the female member of our team. Kayame seemed to flinch and then mumble something I wasn't quite able to catch.

"Oh, yeah, that's Hisa." He said off handedly.

The now named Hisa just stuck her tongue out at him before looking back at me and regaining her smile.

"I'm Hisa Senju. It's nice to meet you." She said with a wave.

Ok, Senju. Now that caught my attention, most Senju either married into different families or just didn't use their last name since it tended to make you a target. I had no memory of either of them from the original story so either they don't make it or they just didn't matter enough to be included, you know, background characters. Or, and this may sound a bit self centered but, maybe my being here changed somethings already. I managed to snap out of my thought induced staring before it got creepy (hopefully) and just smiled back.

"It's nice to meet you both. I'm Takezo Uchiha. I'm looking forward to working with both of you." I introduced myself.

"By the way, where is our sensei?" I asked.

Then, as if the gods were playing a trick on me there was a crack of air being rapidly displaced, a flash of yellow and then a yell. From right behind me.

"HELLO MY WONDERFUL STUDENTS!"

Now, according to both Hisa and Kayame I made a high pitched yelp. I have no memory of making such a sound but it's two to one, actually three to one if you count sensei so I tended to lose that argument. Once I'd righted myself and established that both of my teammates were laughing, Hisa being polite was atleast trying to stifle it where as Kayame was holding his sides on the ground.

Looking to where I'd been a moment ago I saw two people standing there, both were easily recognizable to even a passing fan of the series.

The first was a man in his late teens I guess with the standard Hidden Leaf Jounin attire and long blonde hair was none other than Minato Namikaze. The Yellow Flash, though I didn't think he had that knick name yet, he'll definitly have it in the next few years.

Standing next to him was a positively beaming redhead wearing the standard Jounin flak jacket with a short sleeve shirt underneath and non bandaged form fitting shinobi pants. This could only be his future wife, (I'm guessing they're not married yet) Kushina Uzumaki. Mother of the saviour of the world Naruto Uzumaki, current Jinchūriki of the Nine Tailed Fox Kurama, and possibly the only person Minato feared.

Both Hisa and Kayame waved with a simultaneous "Good morning Kushina-Sensei."

Well that's good, didn't fuck up that part of the story. Then, all eyes were on me. I was in the presence of some legit badasses who seemed rather silly and felt put on the spot. I wasn't exactly sure where to go or what to do so I just, well.

"Uhh, Hi. I'm-" Was all I got out before I was tackle hugged by a red missile.

"You must be Takezo! Welcome to Team Four! Do you know Mikito? She'smybestfriendandohhaveyou-"

I couldn't keep track after that, it was like an adult, female, super strong version of Obito. Oh, and I was also suffocating. The bear hug was a bit on the tight side, which was cool because I was being hugged by a beautiful woman, (I may be in a kids body but my mind is that of an adult so sue me) but also terrifying because I was losing air rapidly. I was thankfully saved by the timely intervention on Minato who manged to separate us and allowed the sweet feeling of oxygen to become one with me once again.

That aside I couldn't stop the goofy smile on my face from shining through. Off in a corner it looked like Minato was giving Kushina a talking to almost like you would a child. Hisa came over to check on me while Kayame looked like he hadn't moved from his position on the ground and was now suffering from even more hysterical laughter.

"She does that, I thought she was going to put me and Kayame in the hospital when we first met." She said playfully.

Minato and Kushina came back over after a few minutes, by which point Kayame had removed himself from the ground and was now standing next to Hisa and myself still fighting a fit of giggles. Kushina had a sheepish grin and was rubbing the back of her head while Minato looked slightly embarrassed in a way that told me he'd done this more than a few times.

"Ok, so, sorry about that. I'm just excited to have a whole team again." A quick check of everyone's faces didn't elude to a rather tragic end for my predecessor so that left me kind of curious.

"And before you ask, nothing bad happened to him, he just didn't mesh with the team and failed my test."

Ok so part of my curiosity was now sated but now I wanted to know what kind of test we would be taking. Minato quickly produced two small bells and handed them to Kushina.

Of course, bell test. Why did I think it would be anything else.

"Minato will be officiating, and helping me judge how you all perform but he won't be participating. That's just to unfair that it's not fun. Kayame and Hisa know the deal but as a quick rundown, all you have to do is take the bells from me."

I tried not to let my face show just how much of an understatement I thought the Minato part was. Once she finished the speech Minato gave a quick kiss on Kushinas cheek and then, just vanished. Really the definition of hax level speed that one.

Kushina, or sensei now I guess, meanwhile tied the bells to her jacket and walked over to the other side of the clearing. This was where it was going to get interesting. I ended up in the center of the three of us on the other side of the clearing. Hisa was on my right and Kayame on my left.

"Can you guys give me a quick rundown of your abilities? I've got good taijutsu, beginner level body flicker, some sensing ability, and fire natured chakra."

Kayame answered first.

"Good Taijutsu and a crap ton of sharp things and explosives."

Ok, good to know.

Hisa seemed to swallow a lump in her throat before answering.

"Taijutsu isn't my strong suit. But, I have-" She hesitated for a moment.

"I have the wood style Kekkei Genkai."

Wait.

Back the fuck up.

What?

I looked at Kayame who just shrugged showing he didn't know. Questions for later I decided.

"Does sensei know?" She shook her head no.

"I can't use it very well, or a lot even." She admitted.

I wasn't too surprised to hear that, and I could understand her hesitation to tell us. For one thing, something like this popping up in a clan that had almost disappeared would make her a target for enemy forces, the village would likely hover over her like a damn specter, and being a Senju, she would always be compared to the First Hokage Hashirama Senju.

Not sure why she elected to share the information with us but I'll take what I can get. Ok, plan was halfway formed and I figured I didn't have time to finish it now so we'll jest make the rest up as we go.

"Ok, Kayame, Hisa, once it starts, throw out whatever ranged weapons you can and then drop back into the woodline and start laying traps as you go. I'll push out and keep her busy while you do so, then I'll disengage and swing wide around and find you both afterwards and we'll go from there. Sound good?"

I said as quietly as I could without being full on whisper.

"Better then what I got." Came Kayame.

A quick look to Hisa who just nodded in agreement.

"And. Begin!" Sensei shouted from the other side of the clearing.

A quick rain of kunai and shuriken from the three of us shot out towards her. As she casually deflected or dodged I ran out towards her and pulled a kunai while they pulled back as planned.

Now, here's the thing with fights, they go fast.

Everything is just action and reaction, being shorter than sensei I swept my blade towards her thigh as that was about level to me, instead of blocking she lept up and produced her own rain of steel. I rolled with the momentum from my swing and managed to dodge and then, my vision doubled for a moment, the world seemed to turn on end. The line from Jurassic Park, 'Clever girl' came to mind.

Genjutsu generally couldn't be effective long term if cast quickly unless you had a Sharingan. A quick surge of chakra through my system managed to right everything.

Just in time to dodge a kick aimed for my head.

I spun to the outside of the attack and grabbed her leg, I didn't have the strength or leverage to lift her off the ground or swing her around but, I could and did lift myself up on her leg which brought me up to her level.

I spun on my hands trying to bring a leg for kick that was promptly blocked by one of her arms. She threw out an arm and grabbed the offending appendage and flung me to the far side of the clearing.

Surprise surprise, I was getting nowhere fast.

Ok then, time to withdraw.

A couple of hand seals later and voila.

"Fire style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

The sedan sized ball of fire and death shot out towards Sensei who just.

Casually cut it in half.

Because, of course she can.

Thankfully as soon as I cast the jutsu I elected to us the body flicker technique to get myself well into the woodline, Hashirama trees have branches the size of normal tree trunks which meant I could use those to traverse the woods.

A quick check for chakra told me where my teammates were and that sensei hadn't yet moved, I couldn't pick up Minato at all which was weird, oh well, doesn't matter.

I made my way as cautiously as I could towards the others while keeping a passive eye on sensei, I stopped a few meters away from Hisa and Kayame and gave a low whistle to signal my presence.

Despite a surprised jump they motioned me over to the branch they were on.

"How'd the trap laying go?" I asked as landing on the perch while trying keep my body faced in sensei's direction.

"I put out everything I had on hand. Ninja wire, and explosive tags rigged with a proximity charges."

Hisa said while observing everything to our left.

"I put as much out as I could in the time I had."

He seemed almost pleased with himself by saying that while watching the right and rear.

"Anyways we have everything spread out in a rough semi circle from this point but that's not going to hold her if she decideds to come after us." Hisa added.

I was trying to think of the next move when I picked up the faintest flash of chakra right above us.

"You wouldn't be spying on us now, would you Minato sensei?"

I let out just loud enough for him, (I hope it's him) to hear. Thankfully I was right. My teammates looked rather confused at first until someone else started talking.

"Not bad Takezo. I thought I had your sensing beat. What gave me away?"

Ok, this guy gets more and more scary the longer I spend around him. It took my parents years to figure it out considering I'd been doing it since I was a toddler, Obito and these guys only knew about it because I told them. So he either was nearby and listening when I told them or figured it out by way of me finding my teammates in the middle of the woods on the otherside of the training area. I was hoping on the former but betting on the latter. He dropped down onto our branch sitting down and dangling a leg off the side.

"There was a bit of a chakra signature when you, I'm guessing teleported here?" I said not at all sure how he could have teleported to us with out a marker for his Flying Thunder God Technique.

He gave a thoughtful hum before gaining a pleased smile.

"Good to know. I guess now, I'm your prisoner, so what are you going to do with me?"

Kayame looked rather dumbfounded.

"Wait I thought you weren't apart of this?"

Hisa face palmed and Minato just looked at me.

"He was spying on us and probably feeding the info to Kushina sensei. Therefore he's part of the game now and we caught him so he's now our prisoner. Right Minato sensei?" I explained.

Kayame made an understanding "Oh" face.

"So the question is, what do we do with him? I don't think any of us can physically move him." Hisa asked not taking her eyes off of the woods.

My senses told me that sensei hadn't moved yet but that didn't exactly make me feel any better. She was probably waiting for Minato to report back. And then an idea popped into my head.

Evil?

Possibly.

Would it work?

Slim chance of a fat no.

But, it was the only thing I could think of.

"Hey Kayame. You wouldn't happen to have and flash seals would you?" I asked turning to him.

He seemed to think for a moment before routing around in his pack and pulling one out. Flash seals are essentially the flashbangs of this world kinda like the explosive seals are frag grenades or mines.

"Ok good, Hisa do you a marker by any chance."

She gave me a questioning look to which I just made a hurry up motion with my hands, she rolled her eyes but ended up looking anyway. Unfortunately she didn't have one on her, but the a look of realization came over her and she pointed to Minato. Sure enough he pulled one out and handed it to me, his pockets were probably booby trapped with seals and it would be safer for him to just hand it over. Besides, it's not like he knew what was coming.

I pulled out a spool of my ninja wire and tied him to the tree and then pulled over Hisa and Kayame to let them in on my now finished plan.

"Ok mister mastermind what's the plan?" Kayame whispered to me.

I shot him my best impersonation of my dads 'really' look.

"Ok, this is all sorts of crazy but the way I see it, it may be our only chance of getting close to those bells. Kayame I want you to put the flash seal on Minato sensei so it'll trigger when Kushina sensei tries to untie him. Then while she's blinded I want you to hit her with everything you've got. Got it."

He nodded. A little to enthusiastically for my liking but now wasn't the time to be picky. While he went to go affix the seal I turned to Hisa.

"You've got the hardest part."

Already I could tell she wasn't going to be enthused about what I was going to ask.

"I need you to use your wood style and try and immobilize sensei. I'm gonna need you to try and not cover the bells if that's a doable request."

Her face told me that she indeed didn't think it was a doable request but nodded and disappeared into the woodline. I turned to Minato and Kayame who'd finished with the trap.

"What're you going to do?" He asked as I started undoing my weights.

It wouldn't add much if any to my speed but it made me feel better.

"I'm going to go after the bells when she's not looking, hopefully." He just shrugged.

"Ah well, if it doesn't work then we'll just try something else."

And he disappeared into hiding as well. With that I turned to Minato who was just sitting there with a amused smile on his face, despite the fact he could escape whenever he wanted. I uncapped the pen and walked towards him.

"Okay Minato sensei, is there any chance I could get you to, I don't know, scream for help?" Keeping the smile on his face he raised an eyebrow and then just shook his head.

"Oh no, help me Kushina I've been captured." He said in an absolutely toneless yet surprisingly loud voice. The shit eating grin he gave me made the next part slightly less regrettable. I wrote,

'I AM DEAD'

on his jacket and then ran to my hiding spot.

(Had to fight the urge to draw other things but, I was a kid so I'd have to explain some things.)

Turns out I didn't have to wait to long judging by the explosions in the distance which signaled sensei was coming. Eventually she barreled through all the ninja wire and paper bombs and made it to Minato.

And promptly had a cow.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU LITTLE SHITS WROTE ON MY BOYFRIEND!"

I barely managed to stifle my own laughter as she threw what amounted to a almost adult temper tantrum.

Once she finally managed to calm herself she went over to free Minato I closed my eyes and put my hands over my ears.

And then it happened. As soon as the flashbang went off Kayame was moving.

He struck sensei square in the jaw.

He didn't have the raw power to send her flying but he did make her stumble.

"Wood Style: Forest Binding Jutsu!" Came Hisa from somewhere hidden.

The tree underneath Kushina began to move and things that looked like roots wrapped around her legs and locked her in place.

Finally, I shot out of my hide spot in a burst of body flicker and grabbed the bells.

And then next thing I knew.

I was bound to the tree where Minato had been.

He'd slapped a tag of some kind on Kushinas head and Kayame and Hisa both looked like they'd seen a ghost.

Ah shit.

Yeah, maybe mixing wood style with someone that didn't have complete control or cooperation with the nine tails probably wasn't the brightest idea.

After a while where the the three of us were separated from Kushina and Minato everybody got pulled back together and were told that what were about to hear was classified as an S-ranked secret, which is pretty much as secret as something can be in this world. It was revealed to us that Kushina sensei was the current Jinchūriki of the Nine Tails demon. I did my best to fake my surprise as Minato explained the whole story behind the demon to us, once that was over however, Kushina spoke up.

"I understand if none of you wish to continue being my students. I don't have complete control over my, occupant. Minato and I can talk to the Hokage and see about getting you reassigned. If that's what you want." The look of defeat on her face was heartbreaking.

Unsurprisingly, Kayame was the first to speak.

"Why would we want to be reassigned? Yeah you've got a big monster sealed away in you, but your super nice and super strong! So with you as our sensei we could get really strong too!"

Well he was clearly cool with her being our teacher.

"Whatever happened was an accident. No reason to hold you accountable or be scared of you. I'm going to stay."

I added doing my best to give a reassuring smile. Sensei may have been super strong and a Jinchūrik, but she was still only a teenager. She didn't need people abandoning her because of a flare up, Jinchūrik tend to spend a lonely life as it is.

I turned to Hisa, who, despite being perhaps a bit anxious about the whole upcoming wood style conversation, (which I figured was coming up next) nodded in agreement with the both of us.

Minato had a smile on his face that had 'I told you so' written all over it as he reached out and put a hand on Kushinas shoulder. I didn't miss the few tears that she tried to hide but didn't call attention to it, no reason antagonize her right now, even if it was in a friendly manner.

After she regained her bearings there was the debrief about Hisa's wood style. Like I said, possessing something as rare as the wood style Kekkei Genkai was going to make her a target, so naturally.

S-rank secret was slapped on it.

Unfortunately, even in the unlikely event that some enemy nation found out about it, they weren't the real threat. Not to me at least. If Orchimaru and Danzo found out, and they would, they would go after her.

Separately if she was lucky.

The real problem was that I couldn't tell anyone, no one was going to believe a six year old accusing a bonafide village hero a Sannin at that, and one of the village elders. Not yet at least. Another reason to get stronger then.

Oh, I guess I should mention we passed.

Kind of got overshadowed with everything else I guess.

We were released for the day after that, Sensei took Hisa away, my guess was to the Hokage tower to inform him about Hisa's wood style and probably how to proceed since he was one of the few people left who'd been around when the First Hokage was still alive and kicking. Minato pulled his vanishing act again, probably going to train his team.

Kayame said something about going to go get food and invited me along, I declined, not because I didn't like him or want to hang out with him, but I needed to train.

I hadn't used much chakra during the test so I was still pretty much fresh, and my mom just so happened upon a Uchiha Clan jutsu scroll and I could do with trying to expand my arsenal along with improving my control.

After all, it was a beautiful day, and I wanted to try and light things on fire.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

It'd been one month since team four had its first training session, and in that one month so much had changed. First, the war was official now, and it was pretty much a shit show for the Leaf from the word go. The Hidden Stone and Cloud had sent in ANBU teams to initiate the first strikes against the Land Of Fire's infrastructure, bridges blown, damns opened to flood fields used in farming, and managing to damage three of four major harbors along the coast. Then the Stone invaded the Land Of Grass to the west with what was guessed to be around three-thousand shinobi, the Hidden Grass thankfully hadn't just sat back and watched as Stone forces marched through their land and had actually begun a rather successful guerrilla war against them while contacting the Hidden Leaf for assistance. The Hidden Cloud meanwhile had bulldozed its way through the Lands of Frost and Hot Water to the North with around twice the numbers of Shinobi than the Stone.

Unfortunately neither the Hidden Snow or Hidden Springs had put up much resistance since their forces were small and therefore incapable of contesting the larger Cloud forces. The only real good news was that neither the Hidden Mist or the Hidden Sand had made any deliberate moves to side with the Stone and Cloud or to move independently against the Leaf, but I was certain that they would eventually.

This of course meant that Team Fours's training had been accelerated to a seven day a week schedule save for when we were on missions. The missions were all D-rank stuff that mainly consisted of assisting in rebuilding what could be quickly, the local bridges were of major concern. There was a definite tension whenever we went out, if it was a bridge building mission then it would pretty much consist of us genin assisting the builders while sensei disappeared into the woodline to set up and then patrol a perimeter. The worst thing was that we've been slowly pushing further and further out from the village, meaning that the likelyhood of encountering the enemy increased with each excursion.

As far as training went, well, I'm pretty sure we're all well above our age group. All three of us had advanced rapidly in all the basic shinobi areas such as, trap laying, encrypting and decrypting coded messages (I had a plan cooking up for that) wall and water walking, though Hisa was having some difficulty with it.

Kayame, we discovered was pretty likely to end up specializing in Taijutsu, his skill level wasn't the highest and could definitely improve, but he had power and speed, and with a little help he could be absolutely lethal.

Hisa was looking like she was going to gear towards a ninjutsu specialist, given her senju heritage she had a naturally large amount of chakra just no control of it, hense the water walking problem. I offered her a couple of exercises to help her with control on top of what Sensei already had given her.

As for myself, well I decided to stick with the old reliable 'jack of all trades master of none but better than a master of one' adage that worked for me before hand. Right now I had the best Taijutsu in terms of skill and knowledge and thanks to moms Jutsu scroll I had increased my ninjutsu arsenal some along with a bullshit genjutsu that would fill the void until I obtained my Sharingan. All in all, we were progressing well enough that I guess Sensei decided that we could do our first C-rank mission, oh boy, a C-rank after just a month of being a team, this always goes so well.

"Ok guys, bring it in!" Sensei yelled from across the field one afternoon.

We were in the middle of a three way chokefest with me choking Hisa and Kayame choking me. After picking ourselves up and catching our breath we made our way over to Sensei. She gave us a quick once over and then nodded to herself clearly satisfied in our state of deshevellment.

"Good work today guys. you're all really coming along well. Tomorrow moring at six we'll meet here and then head to the Hokage tower to pick up our next mission."

Kayame gave a loud groan.

"Another one? Sensei, we've been doing missions non stop, and when we're not doing them we're training all day. Can't we just take a break?" He whined.

For her part, Sensei just raised an eyebrow at him then to Hisa. Hisa sighed and smacked Kayame over his head before looking back to Sensei.

"What will we be doing this time?" She asked.

Sensei stiffled a giggle at Kayame who was rubbing his head and mumbling about crazy women before answering the question.

"That my dear students is a surprise. All that I'll tell you now is that you should pack for an extended trip. It's a C-rank" She said.

"C-rank?" Hisa sputtered,

"How extended?" I asked completely ignoring the bump in difficulty.

Sensei gave me a look that showed some surprise in my lackluster reaction then she gave a shrug and brushed it off.

"Don't know. Some missions can be a week, some can be for months."

'Great' I thought.

More vague ninja nonsense I thought. I understand operational security during wartime but it's not like we're being sent on some S-ranked mission in the middle of the Land of Earth. This was just a fuck fuck game meant to stir us up and put us on edge, and I'm sure my displeasure showed when I gave my stare to Sensei in response. Thinking back on it, I'm pretty sure I looked more adorable than intimidating considering Sensei just laughed and ruffled my hair and told us to relax before she dismissed us for the day.

Judging by the fact that the sun was well on its descent from the sky I guessed it was around dinner time. I was a little peckish so maybe I'd grab something for dinner sinse mom had abruptly returned to active duty, and Shisui was at the sitters tonight, I turned to my teammates who were getting ready to leave.

"Hey, you guys wanna grab dinner tonight?" I asked.

Kayame looked like he was thinking on it for a second before shaking his head.

"Sorry, can't tonight, gotta help mom with chores tonight." He said apologetically.

I looked to Hisa.

"Yeah, sounds like fun." She said with a smile, though it looked slightly forced, nerves must already be hitting her.

We waved to Kayame as we left. The walk was generally a quite one save for the occasional whoosh of air as other shinobi passed above us hopping from roof to roof, the unofficial shinobi highway. Once we finally reached the market district it became a matter of choice as to what to eat. Deciding that the Akimichi BBQ place smelled best we walked in and and were seated.

Hisa broke the silence first.

"So can I ask you something?"

I looked up from my plate.

"Yeah, what's up?" I said while picking up a piece pork and putting it on the little grill in the center of the table.

"Why'd you become a shinobi?" She asked.

I leaned back putting my hands behind my head.

Why? A question any soldier, sailor, police officer, firefighter, has been asked a thousand times, and one that has a thousand answers. Adventure, to make a difference, adrenaline rush, family tradition, free college, they are all valid reasons. For me it had been a mix of mostly military tradition in my family, and a hatred of those that preyed on the weak. This time though, it was much more straightforward.

"To protect people." I stated a little more flatly than I meant.

"I guess that makes sense." She said.

"What about you? Why did you become a shinobi?" I parroted the question.

"I guess for the same reason. My mom and dad died during the last war when I was a baby so I guess I want to make sure that other kids don't have to lose there parents too ya know? Plus once I learned that I had my wood nature, I at least had to try right?" She asked giving a small smile while grabbing a piece of meat from the grill.

I nodded at her answer. It was also interesting to gain some insight into Hisas home life. Despite being a very open and outgoing girl she was very guarded when it came to family, even Kayame didn't know much about her outside of her abilities.

She looked up at me again,

"Are you nervous?" She asked with an almost apprehensive tone.

"Yeah. You?" I answered.

She nodded, I could see her searching for words. It was perfectly normal to be scared on you first time actually, for lack of a better term, going outside the wire, and this would be our first time going out with actual combat being a possibility.

I reached out and grabbed her hand with one of my own. She gave a startled shake and stared at me.

"You'll be fine Hisa, you've got me, Kayame, Sensei, and even if we do run into the enemy we won't be that far away from reinforcements. We'll be ok." I said doing my best to be reassuring.

She didn't look like she was buying it.

In the middle of all this I failed to pick up on a familiar chakra entering the restaurant.

"Hey Takezo I thought that was yo-"

Obito looked at the two of us, with me holding her hand, and grew a devilish smile.

"My bad man I didn't mean to interrupt your, date." He said emphasizing the word date.

Hisa amd I looked down at are hands and then to each other and quickly withdrew the offending appendages, Her face, (and I'm sure mine to) were as red as Sensei's hair. Oh he was gonna get it later.

"Hey Obito, long time no see." I daid motioning him to sitdown.

Unfortunately before I could start choking the life- I mean catching up a quick "Ahem." Came from the other side of the table.

Obito and I looked to Hisa who was trying to wipe the blush off her face and looking at me questioningly

"Oh. Obito this is Hisa, one of my teammates." I said.

Obito stuck his hand out which Hisa grabed and gave a firmer than normal handshake.

"Nice to meet ya! I'm Obito Uchiha!" He said painfully. Clearly learning his lesson that one.

Hisa meanwhile kept a normal looking smile that had absolutely no malicious intent behind it. Sarcasm fully intended.

"Hisa Senju." She said plainly.

After Introductions were done and the awkwardness wore off we all sat, ate, and talked, well, Obito talked. The conversations were all light hearted Obito asking about our missions and training, and him filling me in on what had been happening at the academy. A good time all in all. After eating our fill we made our way back into the street.

"Well I guess I should get home and pack up. I'll see you tomorrow Taki. It was nice to meet you Obito." Hisa said while waving goodbye.

Obito and I waved back

"So... wanna go to the lake and spare Taki?" he said giggling slightly at the new knickname Hisa had given me.

I stuck my tounge out at him angrily and took off towards the lake. Racing across the roof tops, I could vaguely here Obito cursing my name as he tried to catch up. I put on some speed and made it to the lake what I thought had been well before Obito, I was wrong, and didn't have to wait long for him to catch up.

I could sense him heading off into woods and whelling around to come at me from my left.

Soon enough, Obito burst from the treeline with a fist cocked back and aimed for my face.

I leaned back just enough for him to miss and over shoot me, and as soon as he hit the ground I charged him and launched into a series of vicious combos.

I battered him from one end of the field to another until I landed a kick to his gut and sent him into a tree.

I heard a sickening crack as his back collided with the tree, which I took as a broken back and immediately began to run over.

Only to have "Obito" disappear in a poof of smoke and be replaced by a backpack.

"Oh crapbaskets" I said before my instincts flared and I dropped to the earth hearing the whistle of shuriken zipping through where I'd been previously. I rolled over and stood up and took out a kunai while letting my chakra sense open up to try and find him.

Didn't need to as Obito let out a war cry as he jumped from his hiding place down to me.

Slashing his own blade towards me I was quickly backed up, parrying every attack until eventually a hole in his offense made itself known. He had a habit of overextending his blade hand on diagonal slashes, knowing this I simply started backpedaling to the lake. As it grew closer and closer I could see his grin grow more devious, he would learn that I was in charge of this fight, and that his earlier faux pas would not go unpunished.

Making it to the lake I parried his blade upward and away so he'd come down on me like I wanted.

He played his part perfectly.

Slashing down I leaned back to avoid the blade and funneled chakra to my hand so when it came into contact with the water all I had to do is shift my weight and crash my leg into his side.

The face of someone who realizes they've made a grave error is always worth it.

The kick, though not terribly powerful due to the weird body position and my name not being Might Gai or Rock Lee did land roughly around his kidney which caused him to seize up and drop his kunai.

Shifting on my hand again I swept his legs and then pounced on him, placing my own kunai on his neck and signaling the end of the match.

"Alright, you win." He sighed.

"I know." I said smirking.

I removed the kunai and offering a hand to help him up.

"Best two out of three?" I asked as I hefted him back up.

He nodded with a grin that promised pain before readying himself. I returned his grin with my own.

The next hour saw best two out of three turn to best five out of seven, I won all of them. Eventually we found ourselves lying on our backs trying to catch our breath.

"Ya know, we need to do this more often." Obito said inbetween gasp.

I made somekind of noise in acknowledgment which seemed to work for him, the sky was clear and the lack of light pollution from a wartime village made it so that the sky looked like it was blanketed by stars.

It was peaceful.

"I'm going out tomorrow." I said.

Obito was silent for a minute before turning his head to me.

"How long?" I did my best to shrug.

"Don't know, Sensei was a little thin on the details."

"Hmm." was all he said.

He threw his body forward and streched out.

"Alright, I'm gonna head home." He said.

I brought myself upwards and put my hand out. He took it and gave a firm shake.

"Take care of yourself Takezo." He said trying to hide his worry.

I gave him my best reassuring smile.

"Always man, I'll see ya when I get back." With that we went our separate ways.

I crept into my house so as not to wake the sitter or more importantly Shisui. I made my way to room and started the process of packing, mom had gotten me a couple of basic storage scrolls for when I started doing longer missions and now I had a use for them. I decided to use it for water, cooking utensils, spare weapons and other miscellaneous items that I couldn't keep on me handley. I decided to wear my weights so those would stay out, and that really only left my bed roll, sleeping bag and three pairs of clothes and the bag itself. Once it was all packed I looked at my clock, (don't ask, technology is weird here.) and saw that it was already ten o'clock, satisfied with my packing job I crawled into bed and passed out.

The next morning saw me standing infront of the Third Hokage bright and early with my team. Old man Hiruzen had a stern look on his normally gentile face before he addressed us.

"Team four." he began.

"You're mission will be to deliver supplies to one of our foward operating bases." He said pointing to a mark on the map.

"This base is fifteen miles from the border with the Land of grass, the likelyhood of enemy contact should be minimal, however there are unconfirmed reports of Hidden Rock reconnaissance groups in the surrounding area, be on your guard. That is all." He tossed Sensei the mission scroll before ushering us out.

To me 'unconfirmed reports' meant almost definite enemy presence. Damn GWOT. Sensei went to retrieve the supply scrolls while we went to the main gate. Everybody was quiet, I could see the nerves at work on my teammates faces and I'd be willing to guess mine as well. Thankfully it wasn't long before Sensei arrived with a bundle of scrolls to pass out to each of us, I could read 'weapons' on one of the scrolls I was handed before stuffing it in my pack. To my knowledge due to the Leaf's relationship with the Uzumaki clan and their accompanying seals, we were the only ones who could transport supplies without the need for traditional supply lines. With everything packed up and ready Sensei gave us one last lookover and nodded, and then we left the village without a word.

A/N I am so sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Interpersonal stuff is definitely not my strong suit so I had to rewrite alot of this. Combined with school and a family tragedy I just haven't had the desire nor the will to write for awhile. That said we are entering the first official arc hense the shortness of this story (the name of which hasn't been settled on so wait till next chapter for that) hopefully I can get the next one out within the next two months, I don't really have a schedule so I apologize for that. Anyways hope you enjoyed the chapter and have a good day/night wherever you guys are. See ya next time!


	4. Supply run arc part 1

**I own nothing but my own OC's, even though I'd like to.**

 _ **Supply Run! Part one**_

 _"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." Helmuth Von Moltke The Elder._

It had taken us three days to make it to the general vicinity of the FOB, three days of constant movement with minimal sleep. Outside of the occasional order nobody spoke, Sensei was in mission mode and therefore constantly alert meaning she wasn't inclined to speak much despite her usual personality, and I think that did more to unsettle Hisa and Kayame more than thought of enemy contact.

Speaking of the two, Kayame had initially been a bundle of uncontrolled energy, constantly searching everything and twitching whenever we stopped, now though he seemed to be tired and almost sluggish in his movements.

Hisa had been the exact opposite, she'd been very timid at first and seemed trapped in thought until today. Now she was hypervigilant for enemy shinobi, almost to the point of missing branches to jump to or almost running into me after we left our camp this morning.

And me? Well for lack of a better term I was at home. Patrolling, pulling guard at night, (though I had some issues with that last one I may or may not hit on later) the anticipation, the fear of the unknown and so on. I wouldn't say I loved it, I wasn't some psycho or war junkie  
but I had spent the better part of my life, (this one and the last) preparing to be a soldier. A warrior. It's all I ever wanted to be, and to be honest, I wouldn't know what to do otherwise. That said, the adrenaline that shoots through your system when contact is imminent, it feels good.

* * *

Seeing Sensei's hand shoot up in a halting motion brought me out of my musings and back into reality. Stopping on the closest branch I crouched as low as I could and began to try and sense the surrounding area, I could feel Kayame off to my right, Hisa behind me, Sensei in front, and a very faint something way out infront of her.

Narrowing my eyes as I reached into my kunai holster I saw sensei stand up and give a 'come over' wave to the area she'd been focused on. I saw a man lurch from behind a tree and fall to the ground, and immediately my eyes went wide. He was a Leaf Shinobi, and judging by his spickey hair and face, I guessed a Nara. He was wounded badly and to quote the master of descriptors Jim Croce, 'he looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone'. I saw Sensei move to catch him and lept to join her, they were already on the ground and sensei was cradling his head when I finally reached them.

Now something to mention is that Shinobi medical care while impressive in some areas was heavily, to a fault, reliant on chakra. This means that outside of slapping some haphazard bandages on a wound and praying for the best, anybody who isn't a memeber of the medical corps can't really do much for the wounded, I however had the knowledge of basic combat casualty care from my past life, and thankfully I could still do it on autopilot.

First check for hemorrhaging, a quick look showed that he had multiple deep cuts over the better part of his arms, and legs, as well as two shallow cuts going horizontally across his face, the fact that he was alive and lack of spraying blood told me that the arteries had likely not been hit, but I still needed to put tourniquets on him, and for that I needed something to act as said tourniquets. I took his forehead protector and removed the metal shield, with the aid of one of my personal storage scrolls I was able to get it tight and tied high on his left arm. Only three more to go, well I guess I didn't like wearing the glorified headband anyway.

Sensei, who I guessed later was surprised at my willingness to get covered in blood and the apparent knowledge of medical care when she hadn't taught us managed to refocus on the problem at hand. Letting me work on him she decided to get whatever information she could.

"What happened?" She asked with a seriousness fitting the situation.

He tilted his head to speak directly to her.

"Stone, shinobi," he said through laboured breaths.

"Hit the base hard, they sent me to get a messa- AHH!" He screamed as I cinched down the next tourniquet. Even through his pain I still caught the glare he sent my way.

"They sent me, to get a message back to the village, but I got ambushed, thin I managed to lose them in the trees but I don't know." This made Sensei's face set hard as stone.

"Takezo!" She barked, and I cocked my head to the side to show that I was listening.

"You have this handled?" I nodded yes.

"Then keep at it, Kayame, Hisa! Help him with whatever he needs. I'm going to go intercept his followers." She said disappearing in a show of body flicker.

I looked up and saw Hisa and Kayame standing there staring at me, both were ghostly pale and frozen in place. This was normal and I would love to sit them down and talk about what they were seeing but I needed them now.

"Kayame!" I snapped, both jerked and focused in on me.

"Lay whatever traps you have in a perimeter and watch out for anybody who isn't Sensei got it?" I stated more than asked. He gave a ghost of a nod and lept back into the trees.

"Hisa listen, I know you're freaked out but I need your help." I said as calmly as possible. Thankfully she responded by knelling down across from me.

"I need you to to unzip his jacket and move it away from his chest so I can check for any more wounds got it?" She nodded and moved her shaky to his jacket.

I finished the last tourniquet to another stifled cry of pain and then a hushed "shit".

I looked up and saw that Hisa's shaky and adrenaline fueled hands fumbling to grab the flak jacket zipper. I brushed her hands out of the way and quickly opened the jacket to give me a better look at his chest and saw that he had a small puncture wound about the size of a quarter right about where the shoulder and pectoral muscles meet.

"Hisa, put pressure on that hole." I said shrugging my jacket off and removing my shirt.

This time she managed to control her nerves enough to push down on the wound eliciting another pained howl. Using a kunai I cut off a piece of my shirt and moved her hands. I took the cut piece of cloth and packed the wound as best I could and then used the rest of the shirt to make an impromptu wrap. I felt a tinge of guilt that I didn't have anything to help with the pain, but for the time being he would live at least, maybe.

I let out a long sigh and looked up at Hisa who seemed to have gone into shock, doing my best to wipe the blood off my hands on the few non stained parts of my pants I went to grab her shoulder when she lurched to her side and puked. It took a moment, but as soon as she seemed to get the last out I walked over and knelt down next to her.

"You ok?" I asked quietly.

She shook her head no.

"Thank you for your help Hisa. He might live because you helped me." I tried to reassure her.

She looked up at me with red eyes, I realized she'd been crying through the entire thing, how'd I miss that? Disregarding that I wrapped her up in the best hug I could and she threw her arms around me and let her tears go. This is one of the major downside to prepubescent child soldiers, for the most part they don't really know how to compartmentalize emotions and events that are disturbing and terrifying so you couldn't really tell them to wait until we were safe to actually deal with this. It was at this point I realized that we hadn't heard from Kayame since I sent him off so I got my adrenaline fueled breathing under control and pushed my senses out trying to feel where everyone was.

I felt a familiar ping on what I have now named my chakra radar since that's kinda what it feels like. Lnowing it was Kayame I decided to go check on him and see what the hold up was.

"Hey, Hisa, I need you to stay here with this guy and just monitor him. I'm going to go check on Kayame, if I'm not back in ten minutes start laying traps. If worse comes to pass and bad guys show up, run. You're not strong enough to carry him so you'll have to leave him ok." I said flatly.

A shot of fear lept through her eyes as she searched my face for something.

"Ok, be careful please." She said quietly. I shrugged my jacket back on and gave her a thumbs up.

"I'll be fine, be back before ya know it." I said leaping into the trees.

* * *

Shooting through the trees I was able to catch sight of Kayame who was hunkered down on a branch looking out into the forest. Landing next to him had been a poor decision in retrospect, the sound of my feet hitting the branch caused him to let out a rather unflattering squeak and enough flailing to cross the Atlantic ocean. After recovering, he leveled a small glare at me that was unleveled once he caught my face, I'm pretty sure I had my soon to be named 'kill people' face.

"So is that guy gonna be ok?" He asked looking back into the treeline.

I blew out a long breath.

"Maybe, he'll need an actual hospital to survive but he was stable when I left."

"Hmm." Was his reply

It wasn't long after that we could hear the telltale sounds of fighting, clangs, explosions, and shouts could be heard in the distance. I tried to push out my 'radar' to try and see if I could tell what was happening, they must have been at whatever the extent of whatever my range was (I didn't have a distance marked yet.) because three signatures kept popping up and disappearing. One was clearly Sensei's because there was a second signature buried within hers. Boy I wonder what that could be. The other two were unknowns and therefore labled as enemies.

The sounds gradually died off over time, and eventually I felt Sensei's chakrs pop back into my range. I tapped Kayame on his side and informed him of the situation and told him to go back to Hisa and to beware of the traps she'd likely set since I hadn't returned and that I was going to go and link up with Sensei. He gave a quick nod and lept back to Hisa while I went forward.

Didn't take to long to intercept Sensei, she stopped when I popped up infront of her. She had a couple of cuts in her uniform that had blood stains but no wounds. A Jinchūriki's healing factor is bullshit by the way. She looked up at me and shook her head indicating that she'd dealt with the pursuers. She jumped up to my branch and motioned me to follow. As we jumped through the forest she spoke up.

"Did that guy make it?" she asked

"He was still breathing when I left." Was my reply.

"Good job, I'm surprised you didn't freeze up like the other two. How'd you know what to do?" She said turning her head toward me.

'Shit' was my first thought. How do I explain that?

"I read a lot, and it's kinda common sense to cut off blood flow to stop someone from bleeding to death." I replied.

Wasn't a total lie, most of the military's first aid or 'combat life saver' course for the run of the mill grunts is common sense as far as bleeding goes. Sensei didn't look like she was buying all of it but didn't pry any further, much to my relief.

Landing down on the forest floor we were greeted by a relieved Hisa and Kayame who, by the look of some proper bandages covering the myriad of wounds on his arms and legs, hadn't been idle.  
Sensei knelt down next to the wounded Nara looking at him with an almost motherly look of concern on her face.

"What's your name?" she asked. Said Nara opened one of his eyes.

"Shikaku Nara." He croaked out.

Wait...

What?

Oh boy, I might've just saved Shikamaru's dad. How about that.

"Ok Shikaku, I dealt with the two Shinobi who were following you. Now I need you to tell me some things ok?" She said seriously.

Shikaku however raised his hand with no small amount of difficulty.

"You said two, there were four last I saw." He stated with the usual flat Nara tone.

This revelation caused everyone to tense up, what had been a bad situation was now considerably worse. Sensei for her part just sucked in through her teeth.

"I see. That could be problematic."

Shikaku meanwhile just sighed.

"Look, just leave me to make my way back on my own. I'll only slow you down." He said with typical Nara practicality.

"Now hold up, our mission was to resupply the base. you said it was attacked, is it even still there?" Sensei asked. Shikaku closed his eyes in thought for a moment.

"It's possible, we were caught by surprise but I don't think there were that many of them. So yeah, probably still in one piece." He replied.

"Alright, we're not far out but we won't be able to make it tonight with him slowing us down." Sensei started before turning to the rest of us.

"Takezo, Kayame, Hisa. I'm going to go ahead to the base and try to get help, that means you'll be left to follow with Shikaku. With any luck those other two Shinobi packed up and left and it'll be a clear shot, if not hopefully I can draw them out" She said before turning to leave. Hisa however was understandably less than pleased with the plan.

"You're just leave us by ourselves with enemy in the area?!" She shouted. Sensei turned her head towards Hisa.

"Yes." Was the almost casual reply.

Hisa just stared wide eyed at Sensei unable to respond to seemingly being brushed off. Surprisingly the voice of reason came from Kayame who reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Sensei's right. She's faster and stronger than the rest of us combined and the base isn't that far, she can be there and back quicker and if she runs into the enemy then she won't have to worry about us. And if we can manage to carry the old man over there it'll be even shorter." He said with a small but comforting smile on his face. Hise sagged her shoulders in defeat and Sensei lept off into the woods.

Not one to let awkward silence be, I broke it.

"So who wants to help me build a stretcher?"

* * *

Building the stretcher had been easy enough all things considered. Hisa made to polls using her wood style and I sacrificed my sleeping bag for Shikaku to lay on, it would do. The problem had been how to decide who would carry him. Chakra augmentation was pretty basic and although non of us could do it to the level of someone like Tsunade or Sakura we could at least use it to the degree of carry Shikaku. Well, with two of us at least. Kayame was physically the strongest of us, augmentation or not, and Hisa was far behind him so they got carrying duty.

This of course left me, the physically weakest of our little band of misfits, on overwatch. It worked out best that way I guess since I could sense out trouble way ahead of anyone and while they carried Shikaku on the ground I would be up in the trees. While this happened I was given a little time to myself which I could use to think on our current predicament. In simple tactical terms, we were just short of being up shit creek without a paddle, we still have the paddle but there's a crack in it.

Without Sensei we lacked any serious firepower if we took contact, Hisa had her wood style which was great for a quick surprise but she didn't have any super powerful ones and no staying power in terms of chakra.

Kayame was the best off in so much as he had recently found that he possessed lightning natured chakra and that gave us some offensive options since we were up against Stone shinobi so that was a good point I guess. His taijutsu was as good as it could be at our age and his chakra reserves are slightly higher than Hisa's so we was the only real 'heavy hitter' we had, and he was on litter duty.

Then there's me. Fire style was a solid no against earth style unless your super overpowered, as I stated earlier I was the weakest physically but I did have the largest chakra reserves thanks to my extra early discovery of it. All this really means is, if we get hit, unless they are a chunin or at the most a special jonin we're dead. Even if we dropped Shikaku and ran we wouldn't make it far.

While all this was running through my head I continued to pulse my radar every five to ten minutes. I figured that my range was about two to three hundred meters which would give us some advanced warning in the event that we ran across anybody with untoward intentions but, at the insane speeds a high ranked Shinobi could use, (see ninja magic bullshit section a) it probably wasn't going to make much of a difference.

Oh well.

Even with all that in place I couldn't say I was prepared for what was coming, and in hindsight I really shouldn't have been surprised that we fell for

* * *

( _Kushina 3rd person POV)_

It hadn't been easy to leave her team like that. Especially with the colder than intended response to Hisa. But the plan made sense, if the base was destroyed then they would turn back and take Shikaku back to the village and report it. If not then they'd continue the mission and help repair it before leaving.

So imagine her surprise when after thirty minutes of travel she arrived at a base that looked as though there had been a battle, but not for a long time.

Knowing how bases were set up, she landed at one of three designated safe areas around the perimeter and pulsed her chakra to get someone's attention.

"Kushina?" Said a surprised sounding rough voice.

Turing her head she saw the familiar face of Kaito Uchiha.

"Kaito? What are you doing here?" She asked

"Rotating from the border. Where's your team?" He asked narrowing his eyes, the unasked question of 'where's my son' not at all missed.

"We ran into someone from this base, said they'd been attacked." She said mirroring him.

There were two possibilities running through her head right now. Either she had just run into a trap or. Or her team had been left with an enemy.

"Who'd you run into?" Came a gravelly male voice.

Looking over to it's origin made her adrenaline spike. Shikaku Nars stood of to the side analyzing her. Immediately she reached for a kunai when she was frozen in place, by a shadow and her blood turned to ice.

Oh no...

Kushina's heart sank as Kaito activated his Sharingan and looked her over. His face quickly morphing into terror before settling into fury.

"Where. Is. My. Son?" Kaito seethed out.

"With him." She said shifting her eyes to Shikaku.

Kaito shifted to Shikaku and nodded to him. Shikaku released his hold on Kushina who flexed her fingers and toes.

"Friend of Mikito or not, you better hope he's still alive." Kaito said before vanishing into the tree's. Kushina, didn't waist anytime in following him praying to whatever higher power that they didn't pay for her mistake.

"How troublesome." Shikaku muttered before taking of after them.

 **A/N What's up guys!? Welcome to the first real arc I'm trying so go easy on me please. I want to say thank you to everyone who's read this and favorited and followed it, it really does mean the world. Trying out a new format for the story so please let me know how you like it. If you have any questions, ideas, conspiracy theories, ect feel free to pm me, I'm on her a lot so I'll do my best to answer them. I'm going to try and update at least once a month but hopefully twice, so keep your eyes peeled. That said feel free to leave a review and I'll catch you guys next time.**


	5. Chapter 5: Life to lifeless

I own nothing but my own character's unfortunately. Otherwise I'd probably be filthy rich.

 _Supply Run Part 2!_

 _"In a street fight, there are two kinds of guys. The one who strikes, sees blood, is repelled and recoils. Then there's one who sees the blood and goes all- in to finish off the other. Well lads ... I swear I smell blood in the air out there." - Marcelo Bielsa._

 **(Kushina's POV)**

Shit, shit, shit!

That's what was running through my head as we raced back to my team.

I was pushing my legs as hard as they'd go without pulling on the furball's chakra, I could faintly feel Kaito somewhere off to my left and Shikaku further behind us.  
I should have known something was wrong, I should hav-

"Hey!" I heard Kaito call out.

I snapped my head to him.

"Quit your sulking and focus, my boy's smart and from what I've heard so is his team so have a little faith in the students you've trained will you." He said fixing me with a hard gaze.

He's right, no point in worrying over the possible, dead students filled future. Dammit I wish I had Minato's teleporting bullshit right now.  
Ok, ok, best just to focus and- oh god dammit.

"SCATTER!" I yelled.

Everyone did as I said just in time to watch the better part of a hundred meter wide area in front of us go up in a ball of flame. Awesome.  
As the smoke cleared I tried to make out any silhouettes only to have my instincts scream at me to move, jumping back I got a look at the would be attacker.  
He had long spikey brown hair, sharp facial features and green eyes. My view of him was interrupted by the appearance of Kaito who delivered a savage kick to his torso throwing him back into the smoke.

Kaito turned to look at me and Shikaku (not sure when he got there)

"This just got a lot worse you two." He started.

"That's Gari. Commander of the Explosive Corps for the Hidden Stone. And I'm betting that he has his toddies with him." He said grimly.

Sure enough, as the smoke finally started to clear I could make out three more people other than Gari, then five, then twelve, then. Oh shit.  
In total, thirteen enemy Shinobi stood in front of us. I could hear Shikaku sigh behind me as I looked up at Kaito who had his eyes closed, it looked like he was concentrating.

"Kushina." He began.

"I need to know if you can pull on 'it's' power at all." He said emphasizing the 'it' part.

I could feel my eyes widen. How the hell did he know? It was supposed to be a secret. Questions for later.

"Only a little if I want to keep it under control." I replied. He grimaced.

"Alright then, guess we do it the hard way." He said opening his eyes.

When he did I saw the tell tale red of the sharingan, only, it was different from Mikoto's. His had a weird, almost pinwheel like pattern to them.  
Whatever it was it was making the furball uncomfortable. And I think that worried more than the number of enemies in front of us.

"I'll take Gari on, you two keep the rest off of me. Got it?" I nodded my head

"Kushina, I'll bind them to create an opening, hit hard and fast, we need to thin their numbers and then split them up, the less we have to deal with each will be better for our long term living plans don't you think?" Shikaku, joked? I'm not really sure to be honest. I just nodded

On the other side of the new manmade clearing I could see Gari rubbing his chin and glaring daggers at the three of us.  
He fixed his eyes on Kaito, though I did note that he was actually looking at his eyes.

"You, Uchiha! You the one that landed that cheap shot?" He called out to Kaito who just smirked in return

"Who me? Noooo no it was that other guy, his name was shit sherlock, first name no." He called back lazily. Gari, understandably, didn't take kindly to that.

"You think you're being cute." He replied cracking his neck.

"Bitch I'm adorable." Kaito called back, his smirk showing he was clearly thrilled that his verbal taunting was working

"I'm gonna enjoy killing you." Gari said cracking a sinister looking grin.

And with that they lept at each other. As Shikaku and I prepared for our fight I made a smll prayer to whatever higher power there may be to keep the kids safe. Hopefully someone would answer,

* * *

 **(Takezo's POV)**

Here's the funny thing about being a solider, after being in a combat zone for awhile you begin to develop a sixth sense for when contact with the enemy is going to happen.  
Everyone perceives it differently, for some guys it's a feeling in the pit of their stomach, others, it's a buzz at the base of the neck. for me it was like ticklish feeling on my left ear, hell some even hear a voice. Point is, you just know when something bad is about to happen, and right now my ear felt like someone was going at it with a feather.

Damn.

I started to pulse my chakra sense as rapidly as possible while sweeping my eyes in every possible direction.

"Guys stop!" I yelled down below.

Hisa and Kayame locked up and looked up at me. I motioned them to set Shikaku down and they were quick to do so, as in they dropped him.  
I dropped down from my perch landing next to them, Hisa had pulled out a kunai and Kayame was just staring at me.

"What is it?" He asked trying to hold back any hint of fear from his voice.

"I don't know, something just doesn't feel right." I decided to give the honest reply.

"Wait so you scared us for nothing?" Hisa asked frowning.

I shook my head. "I don't know if it's noting or if it is something. Just a weird feeling telling me that something's coming."

Kayame gave me a sideways look before breaking into a grin and slapping a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey man, we're all jumpy, just don't scare us like that again eh." He said as he turned around to Shikaku.

"Alright old man, sorry about that." Kayame said as he knelt down to adjust the polls.

That's when the tickly feeling started to scream at me. Looking down I could see the glint of steel.  
With no time to say anything I reached out to grab Kayame, as soon as I grabbed him I pulled back with everything I had.  
Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough as I heard the sickening sound of flesh being sliced open and Kayame's pained and surprised cry. Not wasting anytime I pulled a kunai out of my holster and flung it at Shikaku. Go figure he was fast enough to evade it, immediately I started to scan the area again, I could sense he was moving, fast, almost to fast for me to track. again a split second warning was all I got, he wasn't heading for me though, he was going for Hisa who still hadn't recovered from the shock of the past ten seconds yet

"Hisa move!" I screamed. This had the desired effect of snapping her out of her funk, she just wasn't fast enough.

He appeared behind her, and in one frighteningly quick motion.

He'd stabbed her.

She opened her mouth but couldn't force any sound to come out. The guy who was posing as Shikaku threw her body to the side, and then smiled at me and bleeding Kayame. As he did so his body was covered in a puff of white smoke which revealed a large man who was clearly a Hidden Stone Shinobi going by the forehead protector which actually hung around his neck.

He was Bald, probably in his mid twenties, with narrow soulless black eyes and a joker like grin plastered on his face.

"One down, two to go." He said darkly.

* * *

 **(Kushina's 3rd person POV)**

The plan had gone off without a hitch. Shikaku's Shadow Possession Jutsu had succeeded in trapping five of the closest Stone Shinobi who were quickly dispatched by kunai thrown by Kushina. She followed this up by quickly closing the distance with the survivors and letting loose with her chakra chains. These were golden chakra constructs that she could control independently from one another without the use of hand seals, and she was quite effective with them. She managed to impale two more Shinobi before being forced to dodge with a hail of kunai laced with explosive tags.

As she did so Shikaku's shadows surged forward lifting themselves off the ground, indicating he'd switched to his clans Shadow Stitching Jutsu, tried to impale their would be killers. The Stone Shinobi weren't fools though and managed to evade the offending shadows without much difficulty. However, during there evasion they failed to keep track of Kushina, a mistake that would cost two more their lives. Not counting Gari who, if the explosions were anything to go by, was currently entrenched in a rapidly escalating one on one battle with Kaito, left four Shinobi.  
Shikaku was quick to draw two of them away with his shadows, leaving Kushina with the others, effectively completing the plan.

However, the two she was left with were proving to be rather problematic to kill. One, who was probably around the same age as the Third Hokage, had short brown hair with specks of grey flittered throughout it, his face was crisscrossed with scars.  
He was constantly bombarding her at range with with all kinds of explosives, especially shuriken with some kind of explosive seal that had more fire than concussive force, and was quickly setting what was left of our little patch of forest on fire.

The other one, he was probably around her age with long white hair and striking blue eyes was constantly attempting to close the distance with her and strike her  
with the palms of his hands. It was actually very reminiscent on the Hyuga clans 'Gentle Fist' technique, and the alarm bells that were her finely honed instincts  
told her they were just as dangerous.

With the old man falling back for some reason, probably to pull more explosives out of storage, Kushina decided it was time to take back the initiative. While she knew that closing with the younger Shinobi would be a tad on the dangerous side she had full confidence in her ability to take him on by herself.

Narrowing her eyes she decided to open the next phase of the battle. Her Adamantine Chakra Chains materialized and sprang from her body towards her opponent, despite the speed at which they traveled, he proved agile enough to evade them. Jumping, turning, twisting, and spinning effortlessly from tree to tree to avoid the chains the young Shinobi was certainly proving himself a talented opponent, in almost any other instance it would have been a beautiful display of agility, dexterity, and acrobatic skill, but now it was only servering to worsen her mood.

As the chains continued their pursuit, Kushina wove a series of hand seals . " **Water Style: Ragin Waves!** " Letting loose the high pressure wave of water forced the young man to jump away from the tree he was standing on and unfortunately for him, divert his attention from one the still active chains heading straight for him. Turning quickly he extended his hand and batted the chain off course. Then, much to Kushina's surprise, the chain exploded.

Before she could actually process what had just happened she was forced to evade multiple kunai hurtling towards her, which then promptly exploded as well. A quick scan of the battlefield revealed that the ranged Shinobi had returned and was more than ready to rejoin the battle in earnest.

'Great' She thought to herself.

She just hoped that her students could hold out long enough for her to finish this up.

* * *

 **(Takezo's POV)**

"YOU BASTARD!" Kayame screamed as he charged the Stone Shinobi with reckless abandoned.

"Dammit Kayame!" I cursed before charging in after him.

The 'fight' as it was, was more like a lot of flailing limbs on Kayames part and a lot of me trying to find an opening to rush in. Kayame was in full on hulk-smash mode and was thoroughly getting smashed in return. A quick block and side quick from the Stone Shinobi sent Kayame into and through a tree trunk, leaving just me and him.

Fuck.

I needed space, time to try out one of the Jutsu's I'd learned from the scroll my mom had given me then.

 _'Snake-Ox-Hair-Boar-Horse-Dragon-Ram-Bird-Boar-Tiger'_

Inhale, mold, match strike, and...

 **Fire Style: Searing Flash!**

The Jutsu in question was a D-ranked supplemental one. Essentially it was a flash bang without the noise, but looking at it would give pretty much the same result as staring at the sun for to long like a jackass. Of course I had to close my eyes as well but the shreak of surptise and pain indicated that it worked.

I'd celebrate my first successful jutsu use in the field later though.

Disappearing up into the trees I did a quick survey of the area with my Chakra sense. Kayame was alive surprisingly, and from the the way his chakra was moving, he was awake and pissed.

A quick throw of some smoke bombs just to keep baldy guessing and I was on my way to him.

Popping down next to Kayame I saw him trying to shake out the cobwebs.

"Man that guy hits hard." He said looking up to acknowledge my appearance. Taking in him and myself I could tell that I'd definitely come out of the skirmish better. Kayame had scrapes and small cuts all over along with a plethora of formed and forming bruises. Along with his flagging chakra it was clear he wouldn't survive another head on clash with our new friend.

I on the other hand was in fairly decent shape, minor knicks from close shaves with a kunai and some bruises from hasty blocks on my arms and legs made up the only actual injuries I had.

My jacket actually took the most damage. But hey, at least the interwoven mesh held up, so that's a plus.

My chakra was... ok?

I knew that three fireball jutsus was my max as of a couple of months ago but those were fairly taxing even for older Shinobi and I hadn't actually tested my limit's as far as chakra exhaustion went recently.

A quick check confirmed that I'd only expended a little less than a quarter of my chakra so far which was good, I could probably still pull of plenty of small jutsu like the searing flash one and maybe one or two big ones if I wanted to survive.

All of this musing was interuppted by a large explosion to our north. Kayame jumped at the shock wave and sound but other than a small 'eep' he didn't make too much noise.

Putting a hand on him for reassurance he turned back to me.

"Was that him?" He asked, his voice wavering slightly.

Closing my eyes I could still feel him at the spot where we'd left him. Probably still shaking of the effect of the jutsu from earlier.

Pushing my senses farther out I was able to feel the familiar and relieving dual chakra of Sensei at the max of my range. She was clearly fighting someone but the fact that she was close a good sign.

Looking back to Kayame I could feel a grim line cross my face.

"No, It's Sensei. But she's got company for now. So we're still on our own."

Kayame's face then mirrored mine.

"Crap, what do you think we should do?" He asked putting a hand to his chin. I offered a shrug in reponse.

"Well, if we go to her then she'll have to fight with the handicap of guarding us. But, I don't like the Idea of facing off with that guy by ourselves again at least not with the condition you're in" He made a noise that I took to be an agreement and narrowed his eyes before I continued.

"Neither of those are good options but then again, neither is trying to hide, it won't take him long to find us if we do, and if we have to fight him I'd rater we set the terms of the fight. Plus I'm sure you still want payback as much as I do." I finished and closed my eyes again in trying to see what was happening with Sensei's fight.

"Well, do you have a plan atleast?" Kayame asked after a few seconds of silence sans Sensei's battle off in the distance.

"Not really, but I think we can make one up as we go along." I said getting out of the crouch I had set myself in. Kayame nodded towards me and we both kept back into the trees while something resembling a plan tried to take shape.

* * *

 **(Kushina's POV)**

'These pricks are becoming real annoying!' I thought to myself.

It had just been more of the same since the older guy returned.

Dodge.

Counter.

Retreat.

Repeat.

I could sense that Shikaku was in much the same predicament I was in. Difference being that his was probably planned, (smart bastard) and mine wasn't. Distant explosions told me that Kaito and Gari were still duking it out, and wouldn't be done anytime soon. So I couldn't count on his back up.

I was ripped from my thoughts by more explosive kunai flying towards me. A quick use of body flicker and I was out of the blast radius quick enough.

If I didn't have students who were definitely either fighting for their lives or worse were already d- nope, not finisjing that thought, then I could simply turn this into a battle of attrition. I could definitely win that considering they were already starting to show signs of fatigue. A throw just a hair of target, or a tick slower dodging my own counters. I would win this fight if it kept up, but I'd lose my students.

And that wasn't going to happen.

"Well, here goes nothing." I thought while weaving more hand signs.

 **"Wind Style: Supreme Typhoon!"**

The ensuing gust tore through the trees towards the two shinobi who, unfortunately still had enough energy to dodge.

Nothing's ever easy when you need it to be is it?

"STAND STILL AND LET ME KILL YOU!"

And back into routine we go.

 **"Kushina."**

Oh what the fuck now. See, little thing about having a monster sealed in your gut is, they tend to speak up when not wanted.  
Really need to get Minato to look at the seal when I get back.

 _"What do you want now!"_ I asked nonplussed about being interrupted.

 **"You seem to be unable to swat these flies from your path. Truly there is no greater shame for me than to be stuck inside such a weak vessel. Perhaps I should just take control and remove these pest."** The beast chuckled darkly, no doubt thinking about bringing destruction upon us squishy mortals.

The idea wasn't without merit I guess. It would be expedient at least. Unfortunately there was also the risk to my teammates.

That had less merit.

 _"How about you loan me some power? Your power gets to do the killing and I get to keep control of my body. Work for you?"_ I offered. His response was pretty much a given.

 **"You think you can bargain with me!"** He snarled.

 **"** **I made my offer, take it or watch your pathetic brats die screaming!"**

Well that's not a very helpful attitude.

 _"Ok, back in the cage you go."_ I thought mentally closing the seal tighter in my head. So that's taken care of. Now back to the problem at hand.

A blaring alarm clued me into ole white-head charging at me, leaping away and we were back to the races. This is gonna be a long day.

* * *

 **(Takezo's POV)**

" _Horse_ \- _Snake_ \- _Ram_ \- _Monkey_ \- _Boar - Horse - Tiger_ "

 **"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"**

The... well fireball shot out across the forest towards baldy, burning all of the grass, trees, and detritus in between the two of us. I felt him leap out of harms way and start honing in on me. That was my que to leave.

Hightailing it across the the forest I kept a metaphorical eye (ala chakra sense) on the enemy. He wasn't gaining on me like I knew he could, which told me he was either toying with me, (probably what it was) he was stronger than us, and he knew it. Or, and this was the terrifying one, he had friends that I couldn't sense.

That was also a possibility I'd learned during training. Turns out sensing isn't a magic catch all, someone of enough skill could easily hide them selves, as proved when we found out Minato had spied on us during one of our survival training adventures and I never once caught onto him. Now this wasn't to say that I though that this guy or any possible friends he had we on Minato's  
level, because, well that's just not a thing save for being Madara Uchiha or a Ten-Tails powered up wacked out Obito Uchiha.

No, this line of thought wasn't productive. Focus on the problem at hand, on the plan.

Alrighty then. I heard the telltale whistle of kunai sailing up behind me. Hooking one of my arms around a tree I was passing by, I was able to use the momentum to redirect me  
so I was actually facing baldy. Whipping two kunai in retaliation I continued on my merry way. I pinged my chakra sense again to reverify his position, only to receive a surprise kick to the face.

Surprisingly enough. The kick wasn't as painful as hitting the ground. However as I slid to a stop, I was forced to roll almost immediately, looking through my spinning double vision I could make out a trio of kunai stuck in the ground I had previously occupied. Managing to get onto one leg I was again struck, this time on the chest the force of which caused me to hack up a mix of spit and blood.

Another swift kick sent me into a tree, hitting it with a loud and painful thud. It was at this point, much to ever grateful pleasure, my adrenaline, which had beenpumping since baldy had attacked, (and was slowly wearing off) got a second wind. Quite literally, (and I'm not even sure how) jumping to my feet from being laid on my ass, I pulled out the handful of kunai laden with explosive tags and launched them in the general direction I thought baldy was in and lept back into the woods.

The roar of explosions behind me was a small comfort as I willed myself forward as fast as my little legs would carry me. Thankfully, I could sense Kayame close by, and that meant we, (me and blady that is) were getting close to the trap. It was hasty, and probably was only prolonging the inevitable, but it would have to do. Otherwise this would be the shortest reincarnation in history. At least I think so.

 **A/N It's ya boy, I'm back. I want to apologize for not updating on the schedule I had put out. That was a bit premature in hindsight. Anyways first real fights in the story along with a new format I'm trying out for the chapters so let me know what you think. Quick shout out to OceanLord2017 for, A writing a cool story and B, giving me the motivation to get back to writing again, even if it wasn't intentional. So yeah, please leave a review and thanks for sticking by the story. See y'all next time!**

 **P.S The chapters name comes from a Killswitch Engage song off of the Alive or just breathing album. Now for any questions you may have about the story, feel free to PM me or just leave it in a review. I tend to get back within an hour or so during daylight hours for Eastern Standard Time.**


	6. Chapter 6: The Turning Point

I own nothing but my OC's.

Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, and Dragonball Super,  
are all owned by Funimation, Toei animation, Shueisha,  
and Akira Toriyama.

Please support the official release.

Wait a minute...

You know who owns what.

"Blah" - Normal conversation like a functioning individual  
 _"Blah"_ \- Talking to the voices in my head  
" **Blah No Jutsu"** \- Make people more deader techniques  
 ** _"BLAH"_** \- Rage baby moments

 _"Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy." - Epicurus_

 **(Takezo's POV)**

FWUMP BOOM!

I more felt than heard the sound of daisy chained explosive tags behind me. I didn't stop moving though. This was the third time baldy had tripped one of Kayame's traps, and after almost getting decapitated because I thought he died and I stopped to examine the carnage, we'll I wasn't taking any chances.

This had been what accounted for a plan that I'd schemed up, and despite the best of Kayames destructive capabilities, well, a Jonin is a Jonin for a reason after all. A quick pulse confirmed that Kayame was hanging out about two hundred meters in front of me, and judging by the fact he wasn't moving told me that he was fresh out of explosives.

Death it is I guess.

I didn't even bother confirming baldy, he was still alive and probably a little pissed that we'd tore up his uniform. Can't say I'm sorry for something I'm not so, bite me. Landing a little bit to the left of Kayame I shook my head to indicate that our friend was still alive and headed our way.

I didn't miss the loss of hope that crossed his face at that.

Unfortunately events conspired in a way that didn't give us time to air those feelings. Feeling baldy coming from behind me and doing so with purpose now, I leaner forward over the branch I was standing on I let the chakra that held me in place loosen enough to slide underneath it so I was now upside down facing where blady was.

'Was' being the opportune word as he was now above me cleaving through the air where I'd been. Finishing my three-sixty around the branch I cocked back a fist and pooled as much chaka as I felt necessary to shatter his spine, hit him, and promptly shattered a log.

Because of course it couldn't be that easy. Fucking substitution jutsu.

"Heheheheh" Came an erie chuckle from above us.

Looking up, Kayame and I saw him crouched upside down looking down on us, his uniform definitely had seen better days but he was still in one piece. his joker esque grin still plastered on his face.

"You brats aren't half bad. Honestly I'm doing all the other village's a favor by taking you out. Who knows, maybe I'd actually be in trouble if I hadn't killed that little bitch back there don't you think?" He taunted. A quick glance to Kayame told me it was working.

"Well." I started in before Kayame could let his temper get the better of him.

"Thanks for the praise, but if it's all the same to you, I think we'll keep living. Like you said, we aren't half bad, and that tells me that maybe you aren't really all that strong." I said, using the best Vegeta like sarcasm and snark I could muster.

Any retort he might have had was cut off by the branch he was on exploding in a flash of fire and sound. He, again, wasn't dead, no he was about a hundred meters off to our left. But a ping of my character sense showed that he was certainly surprised and possibly even a little injured.

I saw Kayame smirk in victory, even if he couldn't sense what I could.

He'd laced the entire area with explosive tags, and that meant that this was our playing field. Even if I didn't know where they were, I could just stick to Jim and I'd be fine. Also props to his fake despair face, shit could get him an oscar if we were in the right world.

Baldy, well he was done playing games and began making his way towards us. Kayame must have picked up on my alarm as he tensed up and pulled another kunai out.

 _'Three O'clock!'_ I mentally screamed.

Without even alerting Kayame I wove the hand seals for the fireball jutsu and let it loose. It tore across the forest forcing baldy to jump up to avoid it. Only to meet Kayame swinging his blade downward at him. Reacting quickly, he parried the kunai and swung a leg out catching Kayame in the side batting him away.

Just in time to get hit by my bastardized version of the dynamic entry. This time, I actually hit him too. There's a certain visceral satisfaction that comes from seeing the asshole that killed your teammate hit the ground with a resounding thud.

That satisfaction however died as soon as I hit the ground. He'd recovered fast and I quickly found myself on the back foot as an exchange of taijutsu ensued. Then Kayame intervened and put the momentum of the fight back in our hands. I said earlier that Kayame was probably the strongest of us and now that his anger had at least been subdued it was showing.

He had better instincts in a fist fight than I did and his fighting style was a weird mix of power and unpredictable attacks. With my experience and more fluid and refined style born from close to twenty-five (counting my last life) years of experience. We made a he'll of a team.

Baldy, was quickly figuring this out, and decided discretion was the better part of valor. In a show of force he blocked both of our attacks and shoved us back to give him space to leap away. Onto a tree that Kayame had tagged. Que another shower of fire and splinters.

 **"Earth Style: Fissure Jutsu"**

Oh fuck.

"KAYAME MOVE!" I yelled, already moving as far away from the area as I could.

I looked back, and... and I saw Kayame fall in to the opening canyon. As the jutsu came to end I finally stoped running. First Hisa, now Kayame. This, this is all going wrong. Where the hell is Sensei! I shook my head, this isn't helping me, focus dammit! A quick pulse brought me relief thankfully, he was hurt and judging by his completely calm chakra, unconscious. That was ok though, he'd be fine.

Me and my damn mouth.

I saw a trio of kunai fly out of the other side of the canyon implanting themselves in my side of the wall. How the hell could a competent Shinobi miss that damn ba-

No.

"FUCK!" Was the only thing I got out before the canyon wall exploded and collapsed.

* * *

 **(Kushina's POV)**

Punch, duck, dodge left, sweep the legs, shift on my hands, and mule kick!

With that, white head went flying right into his partner. Good news is, they're getting tired, bad news is. They're still breathing. Shikaku had already delt with one of his opponents by multiple stabbings courtesy of his shadows. So hopefully he'd be available soon. Kaito was still locked in his fight with Gari if the giant white barrier that had sprouted out of thin air was anything to go by.

I'd caught the faint sound of explosions off in their direction awhile ago which only served to deepen my fears. Weaving through a few hand seals I decided to try and blitz my opponents now that they were wearing out.

 **"Water Style: Ripping Torrent"**

Forming and then blasting the water from my hands, neither one of my opponent's were able to dodge. The older one manage to at least partially create an earth wall that took some of the damage before the pressure broke it apart. Mister white hair on the other hand. He took on the full brunt.

The force of the attack carried him through what remained of the forest and out of my sight. I did catch the sound of bones breaking however. Knowing he was now the weaker of the two I quickly body flickered to where his flagging chakra had ended up at.

When I got there I laid eyes upon the aftermath of a direct hit. His arms, which had likely been used to absorb the force of the blow were bent at unnatural angles, I thought I caught sight of a bone or two jutting out. His flack jacket was tore up with blood showing through in some areas.

Goes to show that water with enough pressure behind it is more powerful than most people realize. Even if it was in more blunt force that probably caused the skin to actually pop instead of being cut open like I'd intended.

Oh well, time to put him out of his misery. Summoning a single adamantine chain I sent it through his skull. At least it was quick.

My musings were interupted by his companion, rudely I might ad. I mean, who throws a ball of explosive tags at someone. Jokes aside, the old man was pissed. Rightly so mind you, but taking a look at him showed that he pretty much reeked of desperation. One arm was broken and bloody, his forehead protecter was gone, and his chakra was rapidly dropping.

"Die you bitc-GAH!" Whatever he was going to say was cut off. I didn't have the time to listen to him so I flickered in front of him cut him down. Nothing glamorous or flashy like Minato probably would have done, he made killing an art. But it got the job done.

Now, on to rescuing my students.

"SHIIIIT!" Shikaku blurted as his body flew by me.

Or not.

Ok, fine. Everybody dies.

 _"Ok fuzzball. you still wanna come out and play?"_

* * *

 **(Takezo's POV)**

 **"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!"**

I was going to burn this bald motherfucker alive if it was the last thing I did on this planet!

I kept my cool at the sight of a wounded comrade. I kept my cool when Hisa was killed and we were all alone. But now my cool was gone now.

Replaced by rage and grief and a desire for revenge against this pissant and all his little friends.

And so began my brush with the madness that was the Uchihas old friend. The curse of hatred. I didn't even pick up on it at the time. But it was there, should've known bullshit shonen rules would apply even if I wasn't from this world, we'd only known each other for maybe a couple of months. Buy they were my friends, my family, and now they're dead.

Well guess what?

Baldy's gonna join them.

And he's going to go screaming. I promise you that.

With a roar that I didn't know a human could make I tore across the battlefield, fully planning on putting my fist through his skull. However, as someone wiser than I once told me.

"Anger and haste, turn one into paste."

It was too late, I saw baldy flicker in front of me, he had a kunai raised above his head, it was already on a downward swing, the trajectory and speed telling me it would open up my face. (Why could I see that?)

Managing to overide my panic I swung my hips out forward planting my feet and skiding towards him. It still wasn't enough though. I threw my head back as far as it would go and brought my arms up to cover my face and closed my eyes as the blade came down. I felt it hit my forehead protector before carving into the right side of my face , my arms broken from their blocking position by the momentum of the swing but otherwise unharmed, at least that's what I felt. Without even opening my eyes (because I liked the ignorant bliss of not nowing whether or not I was blind in one eye.) I lept back to avoid  
any more attempts at ending my young life.

Once I felt I was safely out of immediate death range I opened my left eye. All good there captain. Then, very slowly and delicately, I tried my right, and proceeded to regret said action. The pain was excruciating, I wouldn't be able to tell if anything was permanently damaged unless I could get it open, so thinking clearly for the first time in the past few minutes, I flushed my face with chakra. I'd read somewhere early on that concentrating chakra to an affected area can help alleviate pain, think immediate morphine or something like that.

Doing this allowed me to at least get the eyelid to open up slightly, (me trying to wipe blood away wasn't helping the pain by the way) good news was that  
I'm pretty sure I could still see out of the eye. Bad new was that I saw baldy charging at me with said half opened eye.

And now wasn't that weird. a minute ago I couldn't keep up with this guy when he was playing around and now, now it's kinda like he's trying to move through an invisible ocean. I knew he liked toying with us but this was damn near suicidal, even against a genin. By the way I'm completely oblivious incase you couldn't figure it out like me, we'll come back to that later though. Taking advantage of his  
decision to be what I perceived as a complete fool, I drew a kunai of my own and waited.

He stabbed forward at a snails pace and I took full advantage of it. Leaning out of the way I brought my own blade up and stabbed it into his tricep and then pushed out with all the strength I could muster completely severing it. The screech of pain was probably heard all the way back in the Leaf Village, but it was beautiful music to me. I was still going to kill this fucker after all. Not being one to dawdle when things are going my way in a fight  
I flipped the blade into a reverse grip and launched into a counter attack.

Ole baldy, being down an arm was now the one on the back foot and clearly appreciated the severity of it. He was doing everything he could to defend against my offence, I was borrowing heavily from Obito in so much as I was attacking from every angle as rapidly as possible instead of my usual straight forward dueling style. Hands, feet, knife, knees, head. I was doing my very best to end this now.

My kunai being knocked away however brought me back to the present, baldy was trying to regain the initiative and struck out with a sloppy side kick. Harkening back to my first sparring session with sensei, I flipped myself up and over the limb and placed my hands on his thigh as it came to a stop. Time for a little imagination and inspiration courtesy of one Might Guy. Shifting on my hands I spun my legs like a pair of meaty helicopter rotors and planted a heel across his face, I heard the unmistakable sound of a bone breaking and gasp of pain before I launched myself of the impromptu perch.

Landing solidly on my feet I weaved a few familiar hand signs and...

 **"Fire Style: Searing Flash!"**

The scream of surprise clued me into him falling for it again. This time though, I wasn't going to run. I'm going to do what I should have done last time.

* * *

 **(Shikaku's POV)**

"Ow" I breathed out.

"This whole thing is to troublesome. Oh well, guess I should get u-"

 _ **RAHHHHHH!**_

"On second thought, I'm just gonna stay right here."

With that I laid my head back and closed my eyes. It'll be pretty obvious when she's done.

* * *

 **(Kushina's POV)**

" _This. Is. Disgusting"_ I thought looking down at the fox's crimson chakra bubbling from my skin.

It didn't matter though. I've got to deal with this guy first and then go save my kids. And judging from the guys demeanor, I think he's far more likely to run away than fight.  
Time to turn on my patented Kushina charm.

 **" _Hi, wanna play with me_?" **Came the horribly distorted 'sweet' sounding question from me. The rapidly spreading wet spot on his pants and deer in the spotlight look told me all I needed to know. A quick body flicker to place me right behind the poor thing.

 **" _Boo_." **

It was all I could do not to laugh when he squeaked and fell out of the tree. If I'd been in the mood for torture I might have enjoyed the look of sheer terror he gave me from the forest floor.

"Please, please don't kill me." He pleaded, unfortunately the adamantine chains materializing around me ought to have made my intentions clear. The fact that he started crying told me it did.

"Kushina wait." Came Kaito's gruff voice.

Turning my head towards him I could see that, aside from some thorough shredding in his uniform he was unharmed. He was also carrying a body draped over his shoulder, judging from the blood covering most of it, he was dead. So, guess we know how that turned out, good for him. Speaking of the body, it was casually tossed down  
to the frightened man.

"Take his body and leave. Now!" Kaito told him, his tone leaving no doubt that if the order wasn't followed the consequences would be severe. The man nodded rapidly and scooped up the lifeless corpse and quickly left.

Not even waiting for them to get out of sight Kaito spoke up.

"Where's Shikaku?" He asked. I let one of my Nine-tailed chakra fueled hair tendrils point to where I'd seen him go flying. Kaito nodded and lept off in that direction with me trailing behind, it didn't take us long to find him, napping.  
Oh, I'm sorry, I mean resting his eyes. Kaito, kami love him, didn't waste any time in beating around the bush and just let himself fall onto Shikaku,  
or he would've if Shikaku's shadows hadn't materialized out of thin air and grabbed Kaito mid fall. The napping man cracked and eye open and locked it onto Kaito

"Time to go already?" He drawled out lazily. Kaito just nodded and was soon released.

Rising from his impromptu bed of grass and tree roots, Shikaku stretched and then lept up into the trees landing next to me, Kaito following shortly. He turned to us  
and gave the signal to move out. His eyes having returned to their natural onyx black, I still want to know what that weird pattern was. Maybe Mikito would know?  
Questions for later. We'd wasted enough time here, time to get back to rescuing my pack of brats.

Just hang in there kids. Big sis is on her way!

* * *

 **(Takezo's POV)**

I'll say this, never count out a blinded and desperate Rock Jonin. I made that mistake and now I was nursing a few cracked ribs for that. Paying for underestimating a fully  
grown Shinobi or not, he was still going to die.

Shaking off the stiffness that comes with prolonged combat I rushed in again. Ducking a haphazard swing that still looked like he was fighting under thirty feet of water, I surged forward and lashed out at his exposed knees. Cutting straight through the tendons in that weird knee armpit part  
of the leg he collapsed like the pile of shit he was. I wasn't going to afford him the time to contemplate how his life's fortunes had turned so quickly though. Oh no,  
I wasn't that big of an idiot. Allowing your enemy any breathing space was tantamount to suicide.

As soon as his back hit the ground I lodged the kunai I was holding through one of his hands pinning it to the ground. Not wanting to risk being close to him for long however  
I retreated back up into the trees, specifically a branch that sat above him. Checking on what instruments of death I still had on me, I was relieved to find that I still had  
three explosive tag laden kunai left.

Best way to make extra sure someone's dead? Stab them, then blow them up. I can manage that.

With a deaf flick of the wrist the kunai had impaled him in both his shoulders and one in his gut. His vision must have returned, because the look of extreme pain etched  
on his face was quickly replaced by all consuming terror. Even from my perch up above, I could see the pleading look in his eyes as he stared up at me silently begging  
for mercy. To bad I wasn't in a merciful mood. A silent hand seal and the visage of a broken Shinobi was replaced by the fire and smoke of an explosion.

It was over.

I did it.

Yay me.

Fuck.

Fuck!

FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK!

I didn't notice the tears, I didn't hear the screams. I didn't feel the wood beneath my balled fist. I just, I just felt hollow, felt nothing. I don't know how long I sat up there.  
But eventually I managed to wrangle enough self control to hop down off the branch, funny, I started to feel the drain of all the chakra I'd expended. I had to shake that off  
too though, I needed to recover Kayame and Hisa's remains. Of course Kayame was buried underneath a literal fuck ton of rocks, and Hisa was probably dangling off a bush  
somewhere way the fuck back where the whole damn thing started.

Oh well, looks like Sensei wont be back anytime soon. Guess I should, should. Man the ground looks comfy right now.

"TAKEZO!" That voice sounds really familiar.

Last thing I remember seeing was a lot of dark red hair and a pair of bright green eyes. Then there was nothing but bliss.

* * *

I don't know how long I was out, but it was definitely a hot minute. When I opened my eyes the first thing I was greeted with was a splitting headache that had me shut my  
eyes again on pure instinct. Ok, lets try that again. This time I opened them slowly, deliberately, completely ready to shut them again if necessary. Thankfully this amount of  
precaution was unneeded, turns out I was laying on a bunk directly under a mini sun that lit the tent I was in. My poor eyes just weren't ready. Now, how did I get here?  
I couldn't sense a damn thing either, I used up so much chakra that I'm pretty sure my whole system didn't know which way was up.

Unfortunately for my poor abused chakra system.

I'm very stubborn.

Spying a pair of crutches off in a corner of the tent I willed the unresponsive husk that was my six, soon to be seven, year old body off the cot I was on. I mentally prepared for  
the pain of landing face first into the dirt below, only to be caught by a pair of rather solid arms.

"I know I raised you with the idea of not quitting, but faceplanting in the dirt to give your old man a hug isn't exactly what I meant." Said a gruff chuckling voice.

Straining my head to look up and see the smiling face of my dad, I think it broke whatever damn I had shoddily put up after the mini breakdown at the canyon, once again  
I found myself crying and pounding my fist in protest of my emotions. The whole time my father never said a word. He just left me sob and beat on him while doing  
nothing more than holding me tight and stroking my hair. After a period of who knows how long, my old man peeled my snotty, tear stained face off of his now wet flack jacket.

"Feel better" He asked, his voice perfectly level and calm but with and air of calmness wafting through it.

I nodded yes numbly. He knew me better than I gave him credit for.

"Bullshit." He said flatly but with a small grin pulling at the corner of his lips.

"Come on, let's get you up and about. You've got some people who want to see you." Dad yawned out, stretching as he stood up. He left me on the cot as he walked over  
to grab the crutches I had been eyeing earlier and then helping me actually get stood up. If I was being honest with myself, I didn't really want to see Sensei right now. While the hatred that had took hold earlier  
had dissipated I was still less than pleased with how things had turned out. Objectively I knew it wasn't really her fault, but. Well the entire team was dead and I was...

Coping.

Tink tinking my way out of the tent with my dad standing close behind incase I came down with a sudden case of collapsing. Pushing past the flaps of the tent opening  
I was greeted a view of a bustling Forward Operating Base, looking around I could see high walls, likely constructed by generous use of Earth Style Jutsu, towers manned by  
wary Chunin and Jonin, a red missile headed right towards me, plenty of tents to hous-

Wait.

WHAT!?

With a thud that was probably heard throughout the FOB, I was tackled to the ground by a hysterical, crying, laughing, Hisa Senju. The sound of cackling behind me alerted me to my dads feeling on this, reunion.

"Hi-Hisa? How?" Came the stupid stutter from my voice. Though, it was drowned out by her crying. Which, of course brought me right back into the arms of my own damn  
emotions. I don't think I'll be crying again for a few years after this.

"Man, do we have a story for you, mister Jonin killer." Came a new high pitched, annoying voice that could only belong to one seven year old idiot.

"I get buried under rocks and you're the one that looks worse." Said a surprisingly alive Kayame Arashi escorted by a smiling Kushina Sensei and an exhausted looking Minato Sensei, guess he's putting his bullshit teleporting to work.

Scratching the back of his head with a arm with a bright white cast Kayame smiled widely. "I mean, look at yourself dude."

Taking a moment to do so I finally (not sure how I missed it before) noticed that, from head to toe, I was covered in bandages. Picture Naruto after the first battle at the Valley of the End.  
That's what I was dealing with. Breaking into a laughing fit I managed to give my dad, (who was recovering from his own laughter) a look that begged him for help in standing back up.  
Smiling and trying to control the aftershocks of laughter he did manage to help me remove Hisa who, by now was merely holding me as tightly as I was holding her,  
(So I guess it was more like removing us from one another) and getting me back up on my feet and supported by my crutches again.

Firmly set on my metal struts I was again assaulted by a red missile, though it was much softer, more like a nudge than being hit by a bull. It was Sensei, she was kneeling but was still taller  
than me forcing her to lean over to actually hug me. This wasn't the death inducing bear hug like the first time I met her, or whenever we showed up for training. It was soft, and,  
she was trembling. It was soft but I could hear her crying, she reached a hand up and grasped the back of my head gently. She whispered, so quietly I don't think anyone could  
hear it.

"I'm sorry." She said, it again and again she said it getting, quieter each time.

I did the only thing I could.

I raised an arm up and wrapped it around her, leaning harder on my other crutch, and turned my head to whisper back.

"It's ok Sensei."

I could feel, more than see a small, relieved smile find its way onto her face.

That's when I heard Hisa and Kayame gasp.

"Dude! Your eyes!" Kayame exclaimed.

Sensei, getting herself centered, pulled a mirror out of, somewhere and handed it to me. Just so you know, seeing the Sharingan in the show and then seeing it on yourself, two completely different thing. I let out a startled yelp which drew laughter from those gathered around me,  
my dad, content as he was to laugh at my loss of composure, put a hand on my shoulder to steady me while I had a mini panic attack. His hand was the most probably the most  
comforting thing I could have at that point. That, and the friends I had around me.

"So." I started, looking pointedly at my two death defying teammates.

"We should probably go inside, cause this is something that involves certain secrets." Sensei said quietly. We all nodded and made our way back into the tent where I woke up.

And I'm not going to lie, I was looking forward to laying back down.

 **A/N. YO YO YO YOU READY TO GET SWEATY! 36 hours with no sleep and I got this chapter done! WOOHOO! Ok, jokes aside, I'm happy that I was able to get this done  
so quickly, it just flowed so much better this time. I think it's because I had the end of this arc better planned than the rest of it. So with that said, what's next?  
Well a couple things. First, we're getting ready to move into a time skip. There will be a chapter or two of filler and then another arc and then the time skip. So that's  
what's next for IGIGIAS (really need to think of a better acronym) Also, a new story! Something I've wanted to do for a while is a HaloxStarwars story. Being in the military  
I think it's something I identify with better than most. If you're interested let me know in your reviews. It's going to be something for me to focus on when I'm suffering from  
writers block on this but this will still be the main story I want to focus on so fear not friends. Until next time my friends! Take care!  
**

 **PS Title is from another Killswitch Engage song.**


	7. Chapter 7: Starting Over

I own nothing but the fools I create.

 _Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. —John F. Kennedy_

 **(Takezo's POV)**

"So... how?" I asked waving a hand towards Hisa and Kayame.

There were a few theories on how Hisa made it rolling around in my head. Mostly pertaining to her Senju heritage.

But Kayame? He should be dead.

Hisa's face flushed slightly and choose to look at the ground instead of me.

"I... I don't really know how exactly. I remember getting stabbed and thrown into some bushes and then nothing." Was all she managed to whisper out. No doubt the act of getting stabbed, quite literally in her case, in the back was quite traumatizing. And like most things that leave the kind of mental scarring that required either serious therapy or lethal amounts of alcohol to deal with, it wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to talk about. I was more than content to leave her alone for a moment to recollect herself, and decided to turn my attention to my other should-be-dead teammate. That was shot down as quickly as it began though simply by virtue of looking at him and getting a head shake in return and a silent head tilt towards Hisa.

Ok then, guess I play the waiting game. I can do that.

Another deep breath signaled Hisa's readiness to continue and I was quick to bring my full attention back to her. However as she opened her mouth a stern, feminine voice cut through.

"Does someone want to tell me why, you all are crowding my patient when he should be resting?" Questioned the voice.

Painfully craning my neck to look. I was greeted with the intimidating visage of one Tsunade Senju. Legendary Sannin, greatest healer ever of all time, and the future fifth Hokage.

Man I live a cool life.

Dad, being the cool cucumber he is, was the first one to reply.

"My apologies Lady Tsunade. My son woke up and I figured he'd at least want to see his team alive for himself." Came his respectfull respone. No doubt he'd seen her terrifying power first hand and didn't want to be on the receiving end of any wayward superpowered punches.

Smart man my dad is.

Tsunade just humed and gave a nod as she walked over to check my injuries. Her palms glowed the telltale green of medical chakra and ran them over the entirety of my body and gave a satisfactory nod to herself when she finished.

"Well, you seem to healing well considering the damage you sustained." She said, when I gave a questioning look she elaborated.

"You had multiple cracked ribs. Broken ulna, multiple lacerations over the majority of your body to include the one over your eye which thankfully could be closed up with chakra so I didn't have to bandage. You'll still have a scar though. And thats not even counting the muscle and organ damage. Honestly brat it's a damned miracle you lived. Not to mention being awake after only a cpuple of days. The only pepole I know that heal faster is me, my grandfather and those two." She finished pointing over to Sensei and Hisa.

Hearing the exact extent of the damage I'd taken was... sobering to say the least. Judging by the lack of surprise or shock from everyone else, I'm gonna guess they already knew. Explains why Hisa was so emotional earlier at least. Tsunade, deciding that a few seconds was enough for me to mull over my brush with death continued.

"There's a group rotating back to the village tomorrow. At the rate you're healing I'm going to let you go back with them. But you 'will' go to the hospital when you get there. Am I understood?" It wasn't a question. I was going even if I didn't want to. I survived one brush with death, no need to anger someone who shatters mountain's for shits and giggles.

Nodding rapidly she finally let go of her medic persona and let an almost motherly smile come up.

"Good. You pulled off one hell of a feat brat. All of you did." She said gesturing to our little group.

"Hisa, Arashi, follow me. We'll do your checks in the next tent. Let's let your Sensei fill in the kid." She said, dropping back into medic mode. Both of my teammates followed dutifly, clearly having either known about or, likely in Kayames case, experienced Tsunades wrath.

As soon as they left a raised the none broken arm and gestured towards the three remaining adults.

"Fill me in on what exactly?" I asked curiously. Sensei was the one to reply first.

"Well, for starters, you and Kayame engaged, and killed Ueda Shohei, the head Jonin of the Hidden Stones defence corps." She began. But stopped as she watched my eyebrows reach the ceiling. Dad thankfully continued.

"From what Kayame told us, it seems as though he didn't take you as a threat due to your age and paid the price. Any shinobi worth their salt should know not to underestimate anyone. No matter their age, if they hold any rank, you treat them as a threat. He clearly forgot that." He finished in that ever comforting gravely voice of his.

Minato Sensei, apparently never one to beat around the bush was next.

"Don't let this go to your head. You all got extremely lucky, if he had actually been trying to kill you from the start. You would have died. Look at what he did to you without actually trying."

I knew this already, but, in keeping with the facade of actually being almost seven years old I just nodded along and added an extra "Yes Sensei" to show him I understood.

Sensei took control again after the exchange.

"When we realized what had happened, your father, the real Shikaku, and myself moved to try and rescue you guys. We were intercepted by about twenty Shinobi however and we're forced to engage them. These guys however weren't your run of the mill Shinobi though, they made up the bulk of the explosion corps from the Hidden Stone. We killed most of them including their captain Gari." She gave a nod towards my dad, indicating he was the one who actually did the dead before continuing.

"By the time we finished with them and actually found you, you were already unconscious and being treated by Hisa and Kayame."

I again raised my hand in question.

"Ok, so that at least explain's what kept you." Going by the flinch Sensei gave, that last part probably came out a little harsher than I meant for it to.

"But I still want to know how both of them are alive. I saw Hisa get stabbed and Kayame get buried under an exploding canyon." Again, harsher than I meant.

"Well, turns out your friend Hisa inherited more than just the First's Kekkei Genkai. She also got at least some of his regenerative abilities, not nearly at his level mind you, but enough that even a stab wound to her kidney wouldn't be enough to keep her down." Dad explained

Well, theory confirmed I guess.

"She's also the reason Kayame is still alive." Minato chirped up.

"Apparently she woke up some time after you two had started drawing Shohei away into that trap of yours. She said that the wound had already started to heal and once she'd managed to actually get a bandage on in she tried to find you. She did her best to conceal her chakra signature once she figured out which explosion's were from your fight and made her towards you." He said, expanding on that part. Probably due to the rapidly growing confusion that was no doubt showing on face.

"I'm surprised she knew how to do that." I interrupted, caught off guard that she could actually manage to avoid my sensing.

Sure someone of either high Chunin of Jonin level could but Hisa? I suppose there's something to be said about the desperation of battle bringing out you best after all.

"She made it to your position just in time to see Kayame fall into the canyon. The canyon ended near where she was hiding so she was able to jump down and put up cover over herself and him before the canyon wall collapsed. It took her a while to dig her way out but once she did she was able to drag him out just in time to see you falling out of a tree." Sensei finished with a small smile that clearly belied the guilt she had over putting us in that position in the first place.

I tried putting up a smile to try and put her at ease but I don't think it worked as well as I was hoping.

After a while of... let's call it uncomfortable silence dad and Minato both got up to leave. Dad saying that he had to pack since he was apparently rotating back to the village and Minato having to write up a report or something, he gave Sensei a small squeeze on her shoulder before following dad out, leaving just myself and Sensei in the tent. As soon as they cleared the flap she turned back to me clearly trying to find words for something, so I grabbed my crutches and hobled my way to the bunk she was sitting on.

"Sensei?" I prodded

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"Yeah, you said that already."

"No, I mean, I... I am more than sorry, like, I don't even know how to start explaining how sorry I am. How stupid I am, how I let you, Kayame, and Hisa almost get killed because I forgot that you guy aren't actually full fledged Shinobi. Forgot that you're kids! You shou- I, should have never let you get into that situation ya'know?!" She yelled, whispered? Whatever you call a yelling whisper I guess. ( **A/N I am legitimately unsure of a descriptor for that. If anyone know than please let me know.** )

Ah, so were doing this now I guess. I wanted to wait until we were, you know, safe in the village but ok.

Letting out a small sigh, I weighed what I knew to make a decision.

I was still bitter about what she'd done, it was stupid, I liked living, and so did Hisa and Kayame. But, and I credit my previous military experience with this, she was a newly minted Jonin. Had likely never actually led anyone before, I don't think anyone in the Leaf saw another war springing up as soon as it did so leading a Genin team was probably for her to gain experience.

Meaning she didn't know how to lead, and probably wasn't a natural leader like, say Minato. And due to how Shinobi military organization was set up, there wasn't a senior NCO to mentor and guide her like how the American military was set up. It was basically 'Here's three children, turn them into effective soldiers. We know yoy have no clue what your doing but hey, if one makes it to there tenth birthday alive we'll count it as a win'

Im essence, she was a brand new Lieutenant that actually had to make decisions with no oversight.

Fuck me.

Ok, so now how do you deal with something like this while still pretending to be a clueless snot nosed brat? Answer? You don't.

She'd likely already gotten her head ripped off by my old man, who had been a Jonin for well over a decade and since I had been the one in danger of dying, may have skipped the "Now that I have thoroughly skull fucked your soul into oblivion, let me explain what you did wrong and how not to do it again dumbass." part.

Shinobi or not he was still a caring parent afterall.

Letting out another long sigh out I placed a bandaged hand on her shoulder to get her attention

"Sensei, you screwed up." I started

"Yeah." Was the quiet response.

"But, by the grace of some higher power, we all made it out in one piece. I for one, am willing to count that as a win and let this whole thing fall into the backround noise that is my memory. However, I'm willing to bet neither Kayame or Hisa will be so willing to let it go that easy." She nodded solemnly.

"I can't say that I know how to fix that either, a simple appology isn't going to fix it, though it may not hurt. But, I'd imagine that, if you give them some space and show them that you're dedicated to trying to learn from this and improve, we'll it might go a long way towards earning some trust from them. Or it might not." I finished. The bluntness was probably the resonance she shot me a funny look

"Your not the best at this whole cheering up thing ya'know." She said

"I'm not trying to. Like I said, you screwed up and it almost got us killed. Now's not the time to play nice." I said rather clinically. She knew I was right too judging by her lack of a retort.

"I will say this though. Don't let this mission eat at you too much. Learn from it, pick your head up and drive on. You're still our Sensei, and our team leader, so we need your mind focused, roger?" I finished. Sensei once again nodded, her eyes searching the ground for an answer that wasn't there.

"Thanks Takezo. That was more, mature than I thought this was going to turn out. But you need to rest for tomorrow and I need to think on things. I'll swing by in the morning and wake you up. Ok?" I gave a quick nod in acknowledgement.

With that, she got up and left the tent quietly. As I hefted myself back up onto my crutches and hobbled my way over to my bunk my mind focused in on a couple of things.

First, I had the Sharingan... sweet. I'd need to train it as soon as I was healed up, cause fuck you I'm copying everything. Mental note, also need to train with Guy, the stronger and more flexible I am, the better.

Secondly, I now have a team that's divided, I may not be giving my teammates enough credit but, if I didn't already have a whole other life of military experience then I probably wouldn't have been as willing to let a mistake that almost cost me my life go as "easily" as I did. New leader or not. So yeah, gonna have to deal with that.

And lastly, this is more funny to me than anything else. I used 'roger' like I would've in my previous life. It's good to be a soldier again.

With those thoughts flying around I laid down and closed my eyes. The pain I'd mostly been ignoring flaring back up with a vengeance. Oh well I don't need that much sleep I guess.

* * *

The next few days were pretty uneventful as we made our way back to the village in a large, casualty ridden convoy back to the village. Dad and Sensei being among the few non wounded patrolled the perimeter while Hisa and Kayame were always close by the cart I was riding in and sleeping next to me at night.

Actually Hisa wasn't technically wounded, which is why she got drafted into convoy security when necessary, I did notice her and Sensei talking one day, and Hisa seemed to ease up around her, if only a little. Kayame though?

Yeah he pretty much glared daggers at her the entire trip back.

Yay...

All told it took us twelve days in total to get back, seven of which I spent riding in the cart and the rest hobbling along with the rest of the walking wounded. Eventually though, those gigantic, magnificent gates came into view, and with them came a up swing in the general mood. Until we actually made it to the gate and got stuck in traffic that is.

Refugees all look very sad and tend to bring down moods after all.

Five hours later and I was now standing in some hallway in the hospital waiting to get checked out to see how my wounds were healing. Super boring by the way and Kayame wasn't in a particularly chatty mood so I contented myself with twiddling my thumbs. Until I heard a particularly loud and familiar voice.

"TA-KE-ZO!" Yelled the voice which turned into a green blur that clouded my vision.

And proceeded to hit me in a full force hug.

Might Guy ladies and gentlemen. Might Guy.

"H-hey Guy, how ya doing?" I asked trying to struggle out of his grip. I noticed he had some bandages and bruises on him as well.

Guy just gave his pattend face splitting smile we all know and love him for.

"I am doing very well! However I should be asking you how you are doing?" He said pointing at my bandages.

"Eh, not to bad overall I guess. We ran into some enemies but we're all ok." I said with a small shrug.

"Pfft. Barely." I heard Kayame mutter next to me.

Guy gave the two of us a funny look and I just mouthed 'later' to which he thankfully nodded and let it drop. We talked for a few minutes about the village and what he'd been up to in class, as Guy talked, I listened dutifly and Kayame, well he just grunted. And then.

"GUY!" Came another yell the caused my eccentric friends spine to go ramrod straight.

I leaned slightly past him to see a mustache wearing, long hair having, older version of him running full tilt at us.

This must be his dad.

Somehow literally screeching to a stop he stared down at the two of us, eyes switching between me and Guy. After what seemed like a minute he reached a hand up.

And promptly punched Guy's head into the floor.

"Are you not going to introduce me to your friend!?" The man shouted.

Guy actually popped right up at this, completely ignoring the goose egg forming on his head.

"Of course! Takezo, this is my dad. Might Duy!" He exclaimed, pointing to the grinning man.

Now, I'm not sure if I was dehydrated, delusional, or both but. I'm pretty sure there was actual stars shining around said man as he struck a dramatic pose.

Weird.

Snapping out of my stupor, I put on the best smile I could and offered a hand.

"Nice to meet you Mr Duy." I said.

Duy grabbed my hand a gave it a terrifyingly strong (like I actually thought bones were cracking) shake.

"And a pleasure to meet the newest prodigy of the Uchiha clan!" He exclaimed with a wide smile, still violently shaking my poor appendage.

"I heard you took down a Jonin by yourself. Is that true?" Guy asked as his dad finally released my hand.

Oh bother, they'd already heard. Guess Shinobi gossip travels faster than I knew. I pointed down to Kayame while shaking my poor crushed hand.

"Actually it was the two of us, Hisa got knocked out early so we made due and just got lucky I guess." I explained trying to avoid any questions. Kayame was in a bad mood and I didn't really want to explain how I stabbed and then exploded someone to a kid who wasn't even out of the academy.

"Mister Takezo, you're may be seen now." Came the receptionist.

Saved by the fucking bell.

"Got to go, catch you later Guy, and it was nice to meet you Mister Duy." I said waving as I hobbled to the exam room.

"It was nice to meet you young man! May your recovery be swift!" Duy yelled out as left, I threw a wave over my shoulder in acknowledgment and made my way into the exam room.

Nice people them.

* * *

So yeah. Six week dead man profile, sweet.

For those who aren't in the know, allow me to explain. A dead man profile is essentially a piece of paper saying that your have an injury or injuries that prevent you from doing task x, y, and z.

Under no uncertain circumstances are you to break said profile, both in order to heal, and so you can't blame the military for any further problems that come from said injury. In my old life, this probably would've been great.

Shaming time is time well spent when you have a real excuse.

Here however...

Well let's just say mom was less than pleased the first time she caught me climbing the counter to get some spices from an unfortunately high placed cupboard. Shisui would just laigh at my plight.

Little two year shit.

To be honest though, it really wasn't that bad.

Getting to spend time with my family was nice, my baby brother was beginning to string together words in an attempt at sentences and making solid attempts at climbing everything. Me included.

By the way, not sure if it was in any of the data books but I'm pretty sure his favorite word was no.

All my friends stopped by at least once a week, Obito, usually dragging poor Rin along being the most common. Guy was a close second though, usually bringing along some concoction he and his dad would cook up to "Help me make a speedy recovery." Or something along those lines.

We did make a promise to train together when I was cleared to though.

Hisa and Kayame would stop and check in on me whenever they happened to be near the compound. Which is to say almost never, we'll at least in Kayame's case.

According to Hisa, he apparently felt like he should'vebeen able to do more in the fight and had thrown himself into training despite his own injuries.

When I asked how things had been going with Sensei, we'll apparently I'd missed some very one sided shouting matches between them. She had apparently done what I'd recommend and talked with Hisa during the trip back, and while Hisa was still reluctant to forgive Sensei, she'd come to the same conclusion I did and was at least willing to give Sensei another chance.

Kayame however had proven a harder nut to crack. To the point where he'd even asked to be transferred to a different Genin team. Sensei had caved at this and even wrote up the necessary paperwork for it. But apparently luck wasn't on Kayame's side, and after a long, top secret conversation with none other than old man Third himself. Kayame agreed to stay on the team. So they were still working on that as of a month into my con-leave.

Speaking of Sensei.

She'd also been noticeably absent during my recovery. I figured she didn't want to be around while mom was around, since mom was, well let's just say vexed when I came home. However I wanted to make sure that we were good.

Yes we had the conversation in the tent but I wanted to make sure. Even though it looked as if my team had figured itself out, ithe never hurt to double check.

I ended up having to wait until the last week of my recovery to get out of the house. Mom and Dad watched me like a hawk every second during my recovery, and it wasn't until the last week that thankfully saw a relaxing of the strict (and in my opinion, unnecessary) observation.

I was an adult after all. Well kinda.

Anyways, I took my chance to go and find my wayward team as soon as they let up.

One day while Dad was doing some minor D-rank's and Mom was out getting some groceries with a now walking Shisui in tow, I donned my now repaired Uchiha Jacket, (Thanks Mom) and made my escape. One problem I didn't account for though.

Where the fuck did Sensei live?

My chakra sensing had recovered sure, but it still had an extremely limited range, so no help there. Well, I'm pretty sure Hisa or Kayame knew seeing as how they'd been on her team far longer than I had.

Ok so find one of them first. I could do that.

I recalled that Hisa lived in the one orphanage that was actually in the Village proper, so...

Shit! I don't know where that is either.

So as I was in the middle of my conundrum I failed to notice a women approaching me.

"Well you're certainly not one for rules are you." Came a gentle yet, somehow stern voice that caight me off guard and caused me to give a startled yelp.

Turning to look at the offender I was greeted with the angelic visage that was one Mikoto Uchiha. Wife of clan head Fugaku Uchiha, and judging by the bundle of soft pink mush with bones in her arms. Brand new mother to once Itachi Uchiha.

She wore a dark brown blouse and the gold standard dark blue Shinobi pants. Her dark hair had bangs that framed her kind face that had a playful smirk crawling onto it.

I of course, realizing Mom had probably asked her to watch me while she and Dad were out, couldn't even manage to sputter out a reasonable response. So...

"Uhh, hi." Good job, got something out.

"Hello." She said pleasantly which did nothing to hide the whole, 'I'm a cat who's caught a mouse' aura coming off her.

Welp. Only one thing to do. Bow my head and.

"Please don't tell my parents."

...

...

"Ok."

Wait... what?

I'm sure my confusion was evident if the small giggle she gave was anything to go by.

"Your parents figured you were going stir crazy being stuck in the house for so long so they asked if I would check in on you and just make sure you weren't training. They didn't say anything about stopping you from walking through the village." She explained while playing with the tiny humans hands.

It took me a second. Then a quick 'Oh' moment and my brain finally had lift off. Shows what I know about my parents observation skills right?

Ok cool, we'll I can get back on my merry way and- wait. Fuck I still don't know where anyone is except maybe Hisa so.

Ding.

Second light bulb moment.

I looked back up Mikoto, who was currently making faces at baby Itachi who was babbling away happily. She was friends with Sensei, chances are she knew where she lived.

Never forget kids, Shonen stories are convenient, and never be afraid to capitalize on it

"So, uh, Lady Mikoto, you wouldn't happen to know where Kushina Sensei lives by any chance would you?" I said as respectfully as possible. Trying to remember the correct procedures on addressing someone higher on the clan food chain than I.

Oh how I curse my failure to actually pay attention during all those etiquette lessons my parents gave me.

Lady Mikoto just seemed rather amused at my attempt at being proper.

"Of couse, follow me." She said with a quick turn on her heels.

* * *

Ok, two things crossed my mind as Lady Mikoto and I approached the appartment complex Sensei was currently residing in. A, her walking pace shouldn't be physically possible for a someone who just popped out another human, and B, was probably a form of punishment for my faux pas.

Either way, after no physical work for near two months, I struggled to keep up.

No training my ass.

Anyways, while I lamented my poor physical shape, two familiar chakra signature's popped up on my radar. Turning to look, I was greeted with the sight of Hisa dragging a rather disheveled and half asleep Kayame through the street toward the same complex as us.

I'll be honest and say that it brought a tear to my eye to see my friends being themselves after such a harrowing experience and two months of no contact.

"HEY KAYAME! LONG TIME NO SEE ASSHOLE!"

So beautiful.

Or it was until I found myself eating dirt courtesy of a certain clan head wife.

"No foul language in front of the baby." She said calmly. Never once taking her eyes off said baby.

Fair enough. I deserved that one.

Hisa, who had probably rushed over once I did my impression of the Yucatan meteor helped me extricate myself from the ground and gave me a lighthearted punch to the shoulder. Looking past her I saw Kayame chuckling to himself nervously while he meandered over to our little group, his eyes never leaving the scary woman with a child.

"You alright there taki?" Hisa asked as I dusted myself.

"Yeah, nothing I can't take. Plus like Lady Mikoto said, I shouldn't have swore in front of the baby. Or her for that matter, or at all if you ask my parents." I replied with a small shrug, now thoroughly satisfied that I looked presentable again.

"So what are you guys up to today?" I asked ignoring the questioning gaze Hisa gave me.

"Well we were supposed to be training with Sensei but she never showed." Kayame responded as he made his way up to our little group.

"Ah, and what, just forgot to include me?" I replied walking up and slinging my arms around the two of them.

"Well you were healing, and, uh... we didn't exactly know where you lived." Hisa said, very pointedly not looking at me.

First thing that come's to my mind.

"How the he-" I started but was stoped by the cold shiver that crawled it''s way up my back. I thought I heard her mutter something along the lines of "Kushina" and "Bad influence" in the muttering coming from behind me.

"I mean how in the world do none of us know where each other lives?" I questioned, making sure to watch my words this time.

My friends just offered up a shrug in response.

Mental note, get and give addresses.

"Right, we'll let's go see Sensei shall we?" I said. No reason in wasting more time on things that can be handled later.

As we made our way to the apartments we were all rather quiet, Hisa had stopped by the other day, so there wasn't much that had happened that we hadn't already talked about. And Kayame, we'll he and I hadn't actually talked since the day of the fight and our shared near death experience.

It's funny, you both go through something that's so traumatizing, and you want to talk about, but at the same time you don't because your either worried that the other person will think less of you because you admit how scared you were. Or you don't actually know how to even start, so it just sits and festers until you have a breakdown and do something that's short sighted and stupid and now you've done nothing more than answer a long term question with a short term solution.

Fuck PTSD right?

I cannot wait till I'm old enough to smoke again.

Anyway.

Sensei thankfully only lived on the second floor of the complex, so less stair's for me. Yay.

Lady Mikoto had elected to fall behind our little group of mental problem's giving us space incase we decided to air our feelings. Nice gesture even if it wasn't on the list of things to do today. Once we made it onto the second floor She was nice enough to give us the room number, 206A for anyone interested.

Now, and I can't stress this enough. In hindsight, I should've done a quick check with my sensing to see if she was even home, or with a certain yellow haired Jonin. I also, should have done one when I heard the giggling coming from inside her room. But due to my earlier musings, I wasn't exactly thinking clearly.

But when I did catch on, well it was too late. As Kayame decided that, Sensei not showing up for training, and having no idea what adults do when they're in love and haven't seen each other for a long time do, meant that he should boot in her door.

"KAYAME NO!" Was all I got out as his foot met the door.

For a second the world stood still. I don't know what the poor boy saw, but it didn't last long.

"YOU STUPID IDIOT!" Sensei's screeched.

This was followed by a pillow that I'm pretty sure broke the sound barrier before colliding violently with Kayame and launching him over the railing to the earth below.

Hisa stood stock still, probably trying to figure out what happened before deciding that she should heave herself over the railing to check on him.

Lady Mikoto, who had caught up to us as the event happened, had a "oh my" look, I'd say somewhere between the George Takai kind and the, "I hope he isn't hurt to badly" kind.

As for yours truly well, once the whole sequence of events had sunk in, I started laughing like an idiot. Like the kind that makes you rethink the human bodies ability to survive without an adequate air supply.

Ah, laughter really is good medicine. Not the best, Morphine or Ketamine hold that distinction

All told, it probably took around a solid ten, maybe fifteen minutes for Hisa to drag Kayame back up to balcony, and for me to fully recover from the side splitting laughter that wracked my body. I was still in the throws of aftershock giggles when Sensei stormed out of her apartment, looking... well like someone who had been interupted. Let's just leave it there shall we.

Oh, and she was mad. That too.

"And just WHY, did you kick in my door?" She said, looking very pointedly at Kayame.

Kayame, to his credit looked as scared as he should have been.

"W-well Sensei, you ah, you never showed up to the training ground so uh, so me and Hisa thought that, we'll thought that you might have forgotten." Was his fearful reply. To go from the guy that apparently had willingly gone into a shouting match with someone who could very easily crush a skull in her hands to trying to use me as as human shield was, also kind of funny actually.

Unfortunately for him, his answer did not placate the angry woman. This assumption based on the fact that her hair broke into nine separate entities as her face began to darken.

"Kayame. What is today?" Came an unsettlingly sweet toned question from Sensei's general direction. The fact that her mouth didn't move, something's will never leave my memory.

"Uh, Wednesday S-Sensei."

"Exactly. Wednesday. Otherwise known as my DAY OFF!"

"But I thought tha-" He didn't even get to finish the sentence as Sensei went back inside and slammed the door shut.

Or at least tried to. It didn't sit on the hinges right anymore courtesy of Kayame.

As we stood there processing the last twenty minutes I decided to speak up.

"So that was... a thing. You guy's wanna go grab something to eat?" Foods always a good way to start a conversation after a confusing event. Hisa though just gave a giggle and raised a finger.

"Give it a minute." She said, all right, I'll bite. I looked back at the door as it swung back open revealing a much less terrifying and much more embarrassed looking Kushina Uzumaki nervously scratching at the back of her head.

"So, aha, turns out I have Thursday off. I'll see you guys at training ground forty-five in ten." Came her clipped response as the shut again.

As soon as it did we all burst out laughing. Well, Ok Hisa and I did, Lady Mikoto gave more of a stifled giggle at her best friends predicament, and Kayame just looked exasperated. Which caused more laughter for me.

"Ok haha, joke's over guys. Let's get going Hisa." Kayame said as he turned to leave. Clearly wanting to put this whole thing behind him. Both literally and figuratively.

"Yeah yeah, you coming taki?" Hisa replied with a wave as she fought the last of her giggles off.

I looked at Lady Mikoto as though to ask for non verbal permission since she was technicallymy babysitter for the day.

I got a noncommittal shrug as a response.

So yes.

"Sure, still on a whole 'no training' thing but I'll drop by. Just need to have chat with Sensei first though." I said, throwing my hands behind my head.

"Yeah, ok great now come on Hisa." Kayame said dragging Hisa away. Man he really didn't want to be here.

"See ya later Taki!" His yelled as they ran off. I waved but I'm pretty sure neither one actually looked back. So guess I'll chill out here with Lady Mikoto. Who...

Wait a minute, where'd she go?

A short, but frantic search for my wayward babysitter led me to finding a note stuck to the wall with a kunai.

Right where she'd been.

You ever have one of those moments where you look in the fridge for something and can't find it, then someone goes in like two minutes later and pulls it out because it was sitting right in front of you?

Yeah that, except with a whole person this time.

Anyway onto the note.

 _"Takezo._

 _Snice you mentioned that you wanted to talk to Kushina, I decided to give you some privacy. I'll still be watching, but you seem well enough that you don't need someone looking over your shoulder all the time._

 _Sincerely. Mikoto Uchiha._

 _P.S. Make sure to give this Kunai back to your friend Kayame."_

Oh, ok cool. Apparently giving birth doesn't nullify ninja powers.

Neat.

Also wondering how long it'll take Kayame to realize he's missing a blade. Ah well, cross that bridge when I get there. All this of course was interupted by Kushina Sensei attempting to race out of her apartment and knocking me over the railing.

Shouldn't have been standing in front of her door true. But I didn't think (should'a known better) that she would go full blast out of the door.

She did catch me with a chakra chain though, so no harm done I guess. Of course I was also dangling upside down, so there was that.

"Morning Sensei." I called out with cheery, if not slightly surprised voice.

"Sorry Takezo, didn't mean too I promise." She apologized while pulling me up.

"Hi by the way." She followed up as soon as I landed back on the balcony, right side up thankfully.

"So, long time no see huh?" I questioned. Making sure nothing had been pulled out of place.

"Oh, uh yeah. Sorry about that." She said sheepishly.

"Mom?"

"Yeah."

"Figures. Scary right?"

"I thought I was the one who was supposed to be a demon."

"That's cause you hadn't meet my mom when she's pissed."

It took a second but then some relieved chuckles at my mom's exspense broke through the nervous, "I haven't seen you since I almost got you killed and we had a come to Jesus meeting" air and, at least in my case, allowed at least some relaxation to permeate through.

"So, to the training ground?" She asked jerking a thumb in the general direction.

"Yeah. Talk on the way?"

"Sure."

"Oh, and Sensei, watch this." I said letting a devious smirk crawl it's way ony face. Her raised eyebrow showed more curiosity than worry.

Oh you sweet summer child.

"It's safe, you can come out now Minato Sensei!" I called out. The surprised squeal followed by a loud crash from inside the apartment let me know I was heard.

Also the flush of blood and subsequent loss of it was worth any and all coming punishments.

"WHY!"

So worth it.

* * *

"So what do you wanna start with?" Sensei asked as we made our way through the winding roads that cut through the village.

"Hm, probably how you got Kayame to actually talk and work with you willingly. I mean, Hisa told me about him trying to switch teams." I asked while eyeing the local shops. The village really did have a lot of stuff to sell, even in wartime.

Sensei blew out a long sigh in thought.

"Well, I guess Lord Third had more to do with it than anything else." She started but either got lost in memory or had a squirrel moment. Point is, I made a "go on" motion with my hands to get her back on track.

"Oh right. So when Kayame went to go turn in his transfer request I had to go with him. And well, long story short he kind of blew up when asked why he wanted it. Mind you, the old man had already read my report and the one Lady Tsunade had sent back detailing the injuries you guys had received."

She stopped to take a second to collect herself at this.

"Lord Third listened to Kayame carefully, then basically repeated what you told me in the tent. Except, I don't know, more profound?" It came out more like a guess. Which I made known via a raised eyebrow.

She just gave a shrug in response.

"Anyway, it turned into an impromptu therapy session for both of us. YellING crying, the Third flexing some of his killing intent to keep Kayame from actually hitting me at one point."

"Jesus."

"Huh?"

Shit.

"Nothing, go on."

"You're a strange kid, ya know that?"

"Continue. Sensei."

"Ok ok. So yeah, it ended up being a few hours of this. Finally though the Third had to kick us out, with the condition we start attending joint therapy with the Yamanaka clan head. It's actually been working, which is nice." She finished while mimicking me by throwing her hands behind her head.

Well, at least they worked/working through it. He didn't seem murderous earlier, so I guess that means progress. Good. Guess I don't have to play therapist.

"Of course there's the jelousy problem now." Sensei piped up. Ruining the good mood threating to break through my perpetual pessimistic outlook on things.

"What?" I decided to bite anyway.

"Well, your parents had more than one reason for keeping you locked out of the world." She said, taking a far more worrying serious tone than the more aloof one she had while talking about what I thought had been the actual problem.

"What jelousy 'problem' Sensei?"

"Look, Takezo, You took down a Jonin. And not some newly minted one who was still trying to figure out which way is up like me. No, you took down someone who was considered an actual threat. Regardless of how much he screwed it up by failing to act like a compitent Shinobi. Your name's been on everyone's lips since then. Hell, the Stone put out a bounty for you."

...

...

"WHAT!"

Oh great. Bye life, nice knowing ya. I managed to fuck up simply by surviving. That has to be an achievement or something you get a prize over.

"Yeah, pretty much our reaction when Minato dropped the news."

"But, A, I had help. B, I'm six and a half, so how the hell is anyone buying that? And C, what does that have to do with jelous-"

Oh you've got to be kidding me.

"Really, he''s jelous over something like that?" Come on Sensei, tell me it's not true.

"Well, kinda. I don't think it's that big of a worry, but he did bring up that no one's mentioned the fact that he was there and fought the guy too during our last session. Personally I think he's just stressed and therefore getting worked up over something like that. I just thought you should know at least. Maybe try and talk to him about it, just to make sure ya'know?"

Well... ok, that's not, the worst reasoning I've ever heard. I personally think getting worked up over something like that is, well stupid. But the stress angle at least makes sense. Definitely going to make sure it's just that and there isn't actually a problem.

On the upside, it seems like things are back on some semblance of a track. At least as far as the teams concerned. Props to the old man though, have to make sure to thank him for getting them to go to therapy. Wonder if he uses that crystal ball of his that only ever made like one or two appearance's to make sure there actually going.

Ok last couple of things. Better get this wrapped up quick, we've already made it out of the village proper.

"So, what about you and Hisa?" I asked,

"We're fine, turns out she overheard our talk in the tent, and by the time I managed to work up the courage to talk to her on the way back, she'd already made up her mind as far as I went. And I think being forced to do some D-ranks together helped speed up the process too. Speaking of missions. I have to give you your share of the C-ranks payout."

"I already got it Sensei."

"Yeah, but you picked up your share before it officially got upgraded to an A-rank. So there's still quite a bit left for you." She finished with a small smile. As we neared the entrance to the training grounds.

It was a pretty quite walk from there on out. The two of us enjoying the peaceful silence of the battle scarred fields and trees.

It was nice.

"My turn." She said, stopping to face me.

Dammit Sensei, you're ruining my attempt at narrative.

A narrative?

Seriously fuck the English language and it's grammatical minefield.

"What's up Sensei?"

"You've asked about where I and the rest of the team stand. But where do we stand. I mean really stand. Not, I've got to salvage this sinking ship of team so I say what people need to hear stand." She said, kneeling down to my level so she could look me in the eyes.

The desperation trying to hide behind the cheerful look did not go unnoticed.

Honestly I had two whole months to stew on this. And as much sense as it might've made for me to still be angry about it, the more thought I put into it, the less I was. She had made the moves to improve, had actively worked to try and patch up the holes in the relationships she had with the team. She was doing everything right. But was I really ready to bury the hatchet yet?

Who am I kidding, I forgive worse. (Don't ask)

I threw my arms around her, which despite her slender frame, I was still too small to actually reach around her.

"Yeah Sensei, we're good."

The return hug was tight, and the shoulder getting rained on was enough to make the last remnants of bitterness wash away.

""Aw, hugs are nice." I was still gonna be a smart-ass though.

"Shut up brat." Was the mumbled reply.

* * *

I spent the rest of the day watching my team practice while sitting comfortably under a shady Hashirama tree. It was nice, also gave me something to look forward to.

Huzzah for violent beatings that builds esprit de corps. Oh how my old platoon daddy would be proud.

Turned out Kayame was already over the whole jealousy thing too. Guess things really were looking up for us.

After poping a quick check with my built in radar to see if Lady Mikoto was actually keeping tabs on me turned up negative, I decided that some nice easy calisthenics would do me some good. At least until Sensei caught me and threatened to brave the monster that was my still peaved mother to tattle on me.

Party pooper.

Ah well, I'll get plenty of it starting next week, regardless of what the doc says. I still have a world to save after all.

Anywho, after training was over with Sensei, elected to take us all to this new ramen joint that apparently opened just down the street from Minato Sensei's place.

Yes, I got to go to the world famous Ichiraku Ramen stand. All of you can suck it.

Was rather comical though, the blond haired murder machine wouldn't meet either Kayame's or my eyes the entire time. Much to the confusion of a certain white haired mini mental problem having Kakashi Hatake.

He was actually rather polite this time surprisingly enough, still had a hint of that whole "I'm better than you" thing that fit more my clan or the Hyuga. But hey, actually held a conversation with him. Mainly about the big fight, but it was something instead of the usual "Hey how ya doing? Get Fucked noob." dialog that basically dominated our academy days.

A good time really.

Also, totally see why Naruto basically lived here. I mean, other than the fact that they didn't treat him like two week old garbage.

Real fresh ramen is something I never got to try in my past life, and I feel cheated because of it.

So yeah, after that I followed everyone home so that I knew where they lived for future reference. Even poped the Sharingan to make sure it stuck too.

What?

Don't look at me like that. It's called training. Just not the physical kind.

Right, where was I?

Oh right, following everyone home.

Yeah, did that, then went home. Helped Mom clean up what was left from the dinner I'd missed. When she asked about my day I told her about getting thinges sorted with my team.

I left out the whole interupting Sensei thing. She already had it out for her, didn't need her actually trying to murder her for "Exposing her baby boy to inappropriate content." or something along those lines.

She still held a slight disapproving glare at the mention of Sensei. Shining or not, still a Mom.

Played with Shisui until his bed time. May have used body flicker while holding him when no one was looking. May not have.

Toddler giggles are adorable and worth any punishment.

After that, it was helping dad with some minor sealing work, storage and explosive work mostly. Also doubled as a minor lesson in it. May ask Sensei about it later, especially when dad suggested it. Need to work on my calligraphy first though.

Some reading on chakra manipulation and expanding reserves then straight of to bed.

Best way to cap off a good day is with a good amount of sleep.

Of course.

Life's not that kind.

Because that's when the nightmare's started.

...

I need a smoke.

 **A/N. Fuckin FINALLY! sorry this one took so long to get out. But I wanted to try and get a lot done in this chapter. And at over eight and half thousand. Well I think I got most of it. Still some issues left to iron out but the team is back... mostly. Ah it'll work out I'm sure.**

 **(No he's not)**

 **Quiet you** **.**

 **Anyway yeah, I hope you all enjoy it. And now on to the big news.**

 **I need OC submition's! No time limit since we both know I'm not exactly one to stick on schedule. But if you want to then here's the criteria.**

 **Has to be between the ages of 9 and 16.**

 **From either the Sand, Mist, Grass, or the Waterfall.**

 **You can leave your submission in either a PM or review. And yeah, that's it.**

 **Also Cookie the whonever finds the DBZ Abridged reference in here.**

 **Also also, an apology to my friend OceanLord2017. Sorry I gave you the wrong release date. Whole chapter got redone. If anyone reading this hasn't already done it. You should seriously go check out his story Sea Of Second Chances. Really a good story for fans of, we'll pretty much everything. Seriously, go check it out though. I'll catch ya'll on the next one!**

 **Also also also, chapter title comes from, you guessed it! A Killswitch Engage song.**


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